Did you see the Barbara Walters’ interview where George Clooney promises he will never marry again? How about Walters’ scoop interview with Monica Lewinsky, where she gets the former White House intern to reveal details of her relationship with then President Bill Clinton? What about the much-parodied interview with Katherine Hepburn where Walters asks the Hollywood legend what kind of tree she would be?
If you missed any or all of the hundreds of interviews Walters has conducted for ABC News specials over the past three decades, don’t despair. The 74-year-old journalist just penned a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, which will allow you to revisit Walters’ interviews with many of the world’s famous and infamous newsmakers. Starting next year, Sirius will air a weekly two-hour series that will replay classic Walters interviews with celebrities from Lucille Ball and John Wayne, Bing Crosby and George Burns to Matthew McConaughey and Julia Roberts. Many of the interviews are ones she has conducted since joining ABC in 1976. About four interviews will be featured in each program, with new introductions by Walters to place them into the context of the time. In addition, four times a year beginning this fall, Walters has agreed to do “Ask Barbara Anything,” a one-hour show where she will take calls from listeners.
This of course means that you can now listen to Barbara Walters in your car, while you jog, or while you are at the beach. Walters joins the ranks of other television personalities, best-selling authors, and popular athletes who have segued into the satellite radio market. Walters’ radio show will join other Sirius talk-oriented programs, including “Martha Stewart Living Radio”; CosmoRadio, from Cosmopolitan magazine; and one with Candace Bushnell, whose magazine columns inspired the TV show “Sex and the City.”