Pioneering TV news journalist Barbara Walters has died aged 93, according to ABC News.

Walters made headlines in 1976 as the first female network news anchor, with an unprecedented-at-the-time $1m annual salary.

During more than three decades at ABC, and before that at NBC, she became known for securing exclusive interviews with the famous and powerful.

Walters was the first female co-host of Today, the hugely successful US daily news and magazine show, the first evening news anchorwoman in broadcast history and a co-creator and co-host of topical chat show The View.

She died on Friday evening at her home in New York, ABC News announced.

Robert Igor, CEO of Disney, owner of ABC, confirmed her death, describing it as “sad news”.

He said Walters was a “true legend,” a “one-of-a-kind reporter” and “a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself”.

In a broadcast career spanning five decades, Walters interviewed an array of world leaders, including Cuba’s Fidel
Castro, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and every US president and first lady since Richard and Pat Nixon.

She earned 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News.