( CNN ) -- Longtime ABC News personality Barbara Walters will retire from broadcasting next year after a half-century trailblazing career , according to several media reports Thursday . ABC , where Walters has worked as a news anchor and talk show host since 1976 , answered with `` no comment '' when CNN called about the reports quoting unnamed network sources in the New York Times and on Deadline.com . Viewers see Walters , 83 , mostly these days as co-host of ABC 's daytime talker `` The View , '' which she helped create in 1997 . The plan is for her retirement to be announced in May , giving a year for ABC to pay tribute to her before she stops working in May 2014 , Deadline.com reported . Walters went through a health scare in January when she suffered a cut on her forehead after falling on a stair while visiting the British ambassador 's residence in Washington . She underwent surgery to repair a heart valve three years ago . Walters ' national broadcast career began in 1961 as a reporter , writer and panel member on NBC 's `` Today Show . '' She was promoted to co-host in 1974 , but she was hired away by ABC in 1976 . At ABC , she began `` The Barbara Walters Specials '' and `` 10 Most Fascinating People , '' which has become a regular year-end program . Walters has interviewed every U.S. president and first lady since Richard and Pat Nixon . She spent two decades , starting in 1984 as co-host and correspondent for ABC 's news magazine show `` 20/20 . '' She still reports on occasion . Walters , who was born in Boston in 1929 , is the daughter of a theater producer .
ABC says `` no comment '' to reports Barbara Walters will retire in May 2014 . New York Times and on Deadline.com cite unnamed network executives . Walters began her national broadcast career on NBC 's `` Today Show '' in 1961 . She was the first woman to host a daily news program, succeeding Walter Cronkite who had been doing it since 1948.