Meredith Vieira Biography

Meredith Vieira is a television journalist whose credits include work on CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s The View and five years as co-host of NBC’s Today show. Meredith Vieira got her start as a radio news announcer in Worcester, Massachusetts, after graduating with a degree in English from Tufts University (1975). She was recruited in 1977 by WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, and her talent for human interest stories quickly earned her a job with WCBS in New York. She spent three years there before joining the CBS network as a national reporter. She thrived in TV’s news-magazine format and appeared on West 57th (1985-89) before joining 60 Minutes in 1989. Vieira’s departure from CBS in 1991 made headlines, with Vieira choosing family over work (CBS wanted her to work full-time, she wanted to work part-time). Meredith Vieira jumped to ABC and was on the news magazine show Turning Point (1993-97) before giving up her roaming reporter days in 1997 to settle in with Barbara Walters and Star Jones on the daytime chat show The View. Vieira did introductions, offered opinions and talked about her husband’s battles with multiple sclerosis and cancer, winning viewers with a goofy sense of humor that could sometimes get a teensy bit naughty. She increased her workload in 2002 when she took over from Regis Philbin as host of the syndicated version of the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. When Katie Couric left Today to become anchor of The CBS Evening News in 2006, Vieira left ABC and took over as Matt Lauer’s co-host on Today. She stayed until 8 June 2011, when she stepped down. She was succeeded by Ann Curry.