Barbara Walters Gets Up Close with 2008's Most Fascinating People

• Dec 1, 2008 10:45 PM ET
• by Anna Dimond

Will Smith and Barbara Walters

Who are America's top 10 most fascinating people of 2008? Barbara Walters has made her picks (and no, we're not on it...yet), and she's featuring them all in her annual hour-long ABC special December 4 at 10 pm/ET.

In Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008, the View cohost and interview queen is highlighting ten leaders in pop culture, sports, politics and entertainment and getting up close with them on their professional achievements, personal lives and public personae.

Walters has announced her top nine, leaving the number one most fascinating person of 2008 to be revealed during the program. Among her picks are Will Smith, with whom she'll talk parenting and secrets to his success; Miley Cyrus, who opens up about having a normal teen life despite global fame and Tina Fey, whose career has recently skyrocketed far beyond her role on 30 Rock.

Other luminaries who made the list include Tom Cruise, Rush Limbaugh, Frank Langella, Michael Phelps, Sarah Palin and Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who gave birth last summer.  

Now that Walters has named her top nine, who should take the number one spot?