Barbara Walters, the pioneering TV journalist, whose interviewing skills made her one of the most prominent figures in broadcasting, died Friday, Dec. 30, at her home in New York. She was 93.

Barbara Walters began her national broadcast career in 1961 as a reporter, writer and panel member for NBC’s “Today” show before being promoted to co-host in 1974. In 1976, she joined ABC News as the first female anchor on an evening news program.

At ABC, Walters launched “The Barbara Walters Specials” and “10 Most Fascinating People” before becoming a co-host and correspondent for ABC News’ “20/20” in 1984. For more than five decades, Walters was a name to reckon with, whether speaking with world leaders on news programs in celebrities’ homes for her regular “Barbara Walters Specials” or on “The View,” a daytime talk show in which a diverse panel of women discuss the latest headlines. Her shows, some of which she produced, were some of the highest-rated of their type.

Notoriously competitive, Walters was dogged in her pursuit of big “get” interviews, including presidents, world leaders, and celebrities, and earned a reputation for bringing her subjects to tears.

She was mercilessly parodied — by Gilda Radner on “Saturday Night Live” as “BabaWawa” — and richly honored — with multiple Emmys, a Peabody, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Sometimes seen as brash, usually by men questioning her forthright demeanor, she shrugged at the criticism: “If it’s a woman, it’s caustic; if it’s a man, it’s authoritative,” she once observed.