A respected television journalist whose reporting earned her six Emmy awards, Meredith Vieira was also one of the most recognizable faces on daytime TV, thanks to her hosting duties on “The View” (ABC, 1997- ) and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” (ABC, 1999- ).Born in Providence, RI on Dec. 30, 1953, Vieira graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University in 1975 with a Bachelor’s degree in English. Her first professional journalism job came soon after graduation at WORC-Radio in Worcester, MA. She soon switched to television as a reporter and anchor for WJAR-TV in her hometown of Providence.
Vieira’s professionalism and skill soon brought her to New York to work as a reporter and substitute anchor for WCBS, where a series on child molestation earned her the Front Page Award from the Newswoman’s Club of New York. By 1982, Vieira was working for “The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” (CBS, 1981-2005) in its Chicago bureau. By 1984, she was made Chicago Bureau Chief and covered the Democratic National convention. In 1985, she became a correspondent for CBS’s “West 57th” news program (1985-1989), and her career flourished. For the 1987-88 season alone, she received four Emmys for her reporting. During this time, she was also hosting “Morning” (CBS, 1979-87), the CBS morning news program.
By 1989, Vieira’s status and acclaim earned her a co-editor spot on “60 Minutes” (CBS, 1968-), with her report on Christians who saved Jews from the Holocaust bringing her a fifth Emmy. Vieira’s time on “60 Minutes” came to a halt in 1991 when she became pregnant with her first child by husband Richard Cohen, an educator at Columbia University.
Vieira returned to reporting in 1992, first by anchoring “The CBS Morning News” (1987-), and then moving to ABC to become chief correspondent for the news magazine, “Turning Point” (1993-97). Again, her reporting received the highest honors – a story on white supremacy awarded her a sixth Emmy in 1995. She also received the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy journalism award for a story on disabled students.
Vieira’s television career began to grow beyond the boundaries of journalism. In 1999, she became the host of the biography series, “Intimate Portrait” (Lifetime, 1999-) and in 2000, she hosted “The Beatles Revolution” (ABC), a primetime special about the legendary band’s impact on popular culture.
But her most considerable exposure came in 1997 when she joined as co-host of “The View” (ABC, 1997- ), a morning talk show devoted to women’s issues and opinions. The show was a sizable hit, and earned Vieira and her cast mates Daytime Emmy nominations from 1999 to 2006.
In 2001, Vieira was a celebrity contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” the popular game show hosted by Regis Philbin. When the show was revamped in 2002 as a daytime series, Vieira was tapped to host the program. She earned her seventh Emmy for her game show work in 2005, as well as being nominated in both 2004 and 2006.
In addition to her reporting and hosting duties, Vieira found time to be a commercial spokesperson (for Bayer aspirin in 2004-5), an entertainment journalist (she hosted a featurette on the “Desperate Housewives” season one DVD), and even an occasional actress on series like “Sports Night” (ABC, 1998) and “Spin City” (ABC, 1996-2002), as well as in the film “The Stepford Wives” (2004). A resident of New York City, Vieira has three children with her husband, whose health battles with multiple sclerosis and cancer have earned headlines and some discussion on “The View.”
In mid-2006, Vieira announced on “The View” that she had accepted the hotly debated offer to replace Katie Couric as co-host of “Today” (NBC, 1952-) when Couric assumed anchor duty at “The CBS Evening News.” Vieira would depart from “The View” in May, 2006.
