“Today” show anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb discussed iconic broadcaster Barbara Walters’ impact on them during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday.
Walters, who died last week at the age of 93, leaves a historic career that included her time as co-anchor on the “Today” show. She became the first woman in that role on the program in 1974.
Guthrie and Kotb, who became the first pair of women to co-anchor the show over five years ago, both weighed in on Walters’ monumental impact on the news industry.
“We’re not here without Barbara Walters knocking down that door and doing it when there was no precedent, there was no example, there was no representation of that path,” said Guthrie, who referred to dozens of notable women in journalism paying tribute to Walters during her final show on “The View.”
“She did it, she blazed the trail like a pioneer.”
Kotb added that two women anchoring a news program is “now totally normal” because of Walters.
“The Tonight Show” host asked the pair about the first time they opened the “Today” show together, a moment that arrived after NBC fired Matt Lauer due to sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.
Kotb recalled the ovation she received at a SoulCycle class following her first show with Guthrie.
“They go, ‘What you and Savvanah did today, it was big, it was big,’” Kotb said.
“And I told Savannah ‘Oh my God, it mattered.’ We didn’t realize in the moment that it did.”
Hear more from Guthrie and Kotb below.