Meredith Vieira
Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality.[1] She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show The View (1997–2006), the original host of the syndicated daytime version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2002–2013), and as co-host of the NBC morning news program Today (2006–2011). As of 2019, she hosts the syndicated weekday game show 25 Words or Less.
Meredith Vieira
- Broadcast journalist
- television host
1975–present
- West 57th (1985–1989)
- 60 Minutes (1989–1991)
- The View (1997–2006)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2002–2013)
- Today (2006–2011, 2017, 2019)
- Dateline NBC (2006–present)
The Meredith Vieira Show (2014–2016) - 25 Words or Less (2019–present)
3
Vieira has also been a contributor to Dateline NBC, Rock Center with Brian Williams, and NBC Nightly News, and hosted the Lifetime television series Intimate Portrait (1994–2005). From 2014 to 2016, she hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Meredith Vieira Show.
Early life[edit]
Vieira was born in Providence, Rhode Island,[1] and raised in nearby East Providence, the daughter of Mary Elsie (Rosa), a homemaker, and Edwin Vieira, a medical doctor,[2] both first-generation Portuguese Americans. She is the youngest of four children, with three older brothers.[3] All four of Vieira's grandparents came from the Azores—three from Faial Island, one of the nine islands in the archipelago. The family name Vieira means "scallop" in Portuguese. They emigrated to New England in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, settling around Providence, Rhode Island. Vieira was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, but she has stated in recent interviews that she has "spirituality, not a religion".[4]
Vieira attended the Lincoln School, a Quaker all-girls offshoot of Moses Brown School in Providence, graduating in 1971.[5] She graduated with a degree in English from Tufts University in 1975.[6]
Career[edit]
Beginnings on radio and local TV (1975–1982)[edit]
Vieira began her broadcasting career in 1975 as a news announcer for WORC radio in Worcester, Massachusetts, doing afternoon drive news during the B. J. Dean Show. She began a career in television working as a local reporter and anchor at WJAR-TV in Providence, eventually making her way into the newsroom at WCBS-TV in New York City where she was an investigative reporter from 1979 to 1982.
CBS News (1982–1993)[edit]
Vieira first gained national recognition as a CBS reporter based in its Chicago bureau from 1982 to 1984. She later became a correspondent for nationwide news-magazine shows including West 57th (1985–89) and 60 Minutes (1989–91). Her final assignment at CBS was as co-anchor of the CBS Morning News (1992–93).
Move to ABC, Turning Point; Intimate Portrait; The View (1994–2006)[edit]
Vieira moved to ABC initially as one of six regular correspondents for the news-magazine show Turning Point (1994–99),[7] and was also the host of the Lifetime Network's show Intimate Portrait, which debuted on January 3, 1995, and ran until August 28, 2004.[7]
Vieira served as the original moderator and co-host of ABC's daytime talk show The View from its debut on August 11, 1997, until June 9, 2006. As moderator, she was responsible for opening and closing each of the show's live episodes, introducing "Hot Topics," guiding conversations, and breaking to commercials. On her final episode of The View, Vieira's co-hosts gave her a roast to commemorate her departure.
Vieira explained what led her to become The View's moderator in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, by making the following statement: