Is Barbara Walters Making The Right Decision By Retiring In 2014?

Tomorrow, Barbara Walters will reportedly appear on The View and let the world know she’s going to retire in exactly one year. During that time, the eighty-three-year-old will interview the President, host numerous ABC specials, continue to appear on The View and perhaps even revive her Academy Awards broadcast. All in all, it will likely be a fitting end to a storied career, but as for whether it could have just as easily waited another year is a matter of serious debate.

Despite being on the air for more than fifty years, Walters remains one of the more popular journalists working today. Her segments on the year’s most fascinating people remain extremely popular. She’s always a potential candidate to be chosen for pressing interviews, and while she’s had some minor health problems, she’s in remarkably good shape for eighty-three. She easily could plunge forward another few years.

That being said, Walters told The New York Times she’s interested in traveling on non-business which she hasn’t done in forever, and she’s looking forward to not having to chase down people for interviews. That certainly sounds like a great reason to retire, but considering once you leave the limelight it’s really hard to return, she better be really serious about actually leaving. After all, people still hold Jay Leno’s decision to bump Conan and return to The Tonight Show against him.

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.