Barbara Walters ushers in 2020 on New Year's Eve with her catchphrase

On New Year's Eve in 2020, many celebrities returned the favor in a tribute clip released on the show Good Morning America and posted to its Instagram account.

Journalist Barbara Walters departs Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan after taking part in the taping of tonight's final edition of "The Late Show with David Letterman" in New York (photo credit: REUTERS)
Journalist Barbara Walters departs Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan after taking part in the taping of tonight's final edition of "The Late Show with David Letterman" in New York
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Jewish newswoman and television personality Barbara Walters has long been identified with the phrase “This is 20/20,” which she uttered every week at the beginning of the ABC newsmagazine show 20/20 as a co-host and producer from 1979 to 2004.
On New Year’s Eve in 2020, many celebrities returned the favor in a tribute clip released on the show Good Morning America and posted to its Instagram account. The clip opens with the words “Barbara, What Year Is It?” followed by a montage of her over the years speaking the famous phrase, sometimes in the company of her 20/20 co-anchor, Hugh Downs.

Next, the words “No one says it like Barbara, but...” appear, and a parade of celebrities say the phrase, some in gentle imitation of Walters, others in their own voices. These include Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, Black-ish star Marsai Martin, fellow television personalities Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, a few contestants of The Bachelor, and Whoopi Goldberg, who was one of Walters’s co-hosts on the popular talk show The View. Goldberg asks jokingly, “Do I get the job?”
Even current 20/20 hosts David Muir and Amy Robach joined in, and it ends with Walters herself saying, “Welcome to 20/20.”
If this wasn’t enough of a tribute, Saturday Night Live alumna Cheri Oteri joined Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, who were hosting CNN’s New Year’s coverage from Times Square, and did a Walters impersonation, during which Cooper and Cohen broke down laughing.
The celebrated journalist, 90, became a broadcast journalism star when she hosted The Today Show. After she left 20/20, she created The View and was also well known for her celebrity interview shows, especially on Oscar night.
In November 1977, she did a joint interview with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, in which they discussed the peace process. She has interviewed many other world leaders, including the shah of Iran and Fidel Castro. Her 1999 interview with Monica Lewinsky, a woman whose dalliance with president Bill Clinton caused a huge scandal, was seen by 74 million viewers.
Her last television interview was with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2015.