Report: Barbara Walters Planning to Retire Next Year

Longtime TV journalist Barbara Walters is set to retire after than 50 years in the business, Deadline reports.

The news comes more than a year after speculation first began about Walters' future when a microphone reportedly picked up Walters telling President Barack Obama "I'm retiring next year" during an interview break. At the time, ABC News denied any such plans. However, Walters fell and suffered a concussion at a dinner in Washington D.C. in January. She was hospitalized, during which time she had a bout with the chicken pox and was out of work for almost a month.

Fall TV 2013 Scorecard: What's renewed? What's canceled?

It remains unclear exactly when Walters will retire. The Deadline report says she would step down this May, but New York Times reporter Brian Stelter tweeted that a person familiar with the plan says she would leave The View in May 2014. Stelter also reported that ABC is planning a year of specials that would lead up to her retirement next May.  The Huffington Post also says she plans to step down next year.

Watlers, 83, has been one of the pioneering female TV journalists throughout her career. She was the first woman to co-host a news program when she joined Today's news desk in 1974. Just two years later, she became the first co-anchor of a network evening news broadcast when she moved to ABC Evening News. She went on to anchor ABC News' 20/20 for 20 years before creating The View in 1997. Over the years, she has also become known for her annual 10 Most Fascinating People special and her in-depth one-on-one celebrity interviews with newsmakers such as Monica Lewinsky and Fidel Castro.

Walters also released a memoir, Audition, in 2008.

Will you miss Walters on The View? Who should replace her?