In September 2002, Ms. Vieira was named host of the weekday version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. In May 2005, she won her first Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Game Show Host for Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, becoming one of only two women in the three decades of the Daytime Emmy Awards to receive this honor. Ms. Vieira has now done more episodes as a game show host than any woman in television history. Who Wants To Be a Millionaire is currently in its fourth season.
In March 2000, Ms. Vieira hosted the ABC Television Network's Countdown to Oscar (the official Oscar preview show), a half-hour program leading into the Academy Awards. The show drew a 22.3 rating and 34 share in the 48 largest viewer markets. In April 2000, she narrated the ABC Television Network special, Open Sesame: The Making of Arabian Nights, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the popular miniseries. She hosted The Beatles Revolution in November 2000, a two-hour ABC special -- part musical celebration, part documentary - which examined how much of the world in the year 2000 was inspired by ideas the Beatles popularized during the six years they commanded the world's attention, and the 30 years that followed.
In October 2003, Ms. Vieira hosted a one-hour ABC News special entitled Fat Like Me: How to Win the Weight War, exploring the epidemic of childhood obesity. The special earned a prestigious Gracie Award. In January 2004, she and her husband, author Richard Cohen, were interviewed by Barbara Walters for 20/20. The interview took an honest look at their private lives and Mr. Cohen's struggle with multiple sclerosis. Their joint interview garnered the second-highest audience in two years, with 13.5 million viewers.
Ms. Vieira joined ABC News in October 1993 as chief correspondent for ABC News' Turning Point, which premiered in March 1994. In 1995 she garnered her sixth Emmy Award for her report Inside the Hate Conspiracy: America's Terrorists, an in-depth look at a group of white supremacists who became the most wanted criminals in America.
Other stories she has reported include an adoption scam in Oklahoma, which promised hope for childless couples but delivered heartbreak; the heroic story of children successfully battling leukemia; a cautionary tale for the '90s about the rise of heroin use among young people and the middle class; and a feature on the city of Baltimore's first year of mainstreaming disabled students into public schools, which won a 1995 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In addition Ms. Vieira interviewed the Framingham Eight -- eight women fighting for a second chance after killing the partners they say abused them -- which won an award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.
Previously Ms. Vieira had spent more than a decade at CBS News, where she garnered five Emmy Awards for her work as a correspondent on the top-ranking news magazines 60 Minutes and West 57th. From 1989 to 1991 she was a co-editor of 60 Minutes, reporting such stories as the award-winning Ward 5A, which focused on the first AIDS ward in San Francisco. In addition she won an Emmy for the 60 Minutes report, Thy Brother's Keeper, a story on Christians who saved Jews during the Holocaust. After two successful seasons, and pregnant with her second child, Ms. Vieira left 60 Minutes.
Ms. Vieira also frequently anchored the CBS Morning News and was contributing national correspondent on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. In June 1991, she became contributing correspondent for the CBS News primetime series Verdict as well, reporting on actual courtroom trials.
Prior to joining 60 Minutes, she had been a principal correspondent for CBS News' West 57th, since its premiere in August 1985. In 1989 she received four Emmy Awards for stories she reported on West 57th during its 1987-88 season. Ms. Vieira joined CBS News as a reporter in its Chicago bureau in January 1982. She was named a correspondent in 1984 and covered Senator Alan Cranston's presidential bid, the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco and, as a correspondent, election night 1984.
Prior to joining CBS News, she was a reporter for WCBS-TV for three years, the CBS-owned television station in New York City. Her assignments included the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, the trial of Jean Harris in 1981 and a series on child molestation that earned her a Front Page Award from the Newswoman's Club of New York. She also served as a substitute anchor on the station's news broadcasts. Previously she was a reporter and anchor at WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island. She began her career as a news announcer for WORC-Radio in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1975.
Ms. Vieira served as host for The Miss America Pageant (September 1998) and has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Larry King Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Charlie Rose, Celebrity Jeopardy, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Between the Lions on PBS. She appeared on ABC's All My Children in November 2001, and in March 2003 on ABC's General Hospital. In April 2003, she made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie. As an honorary cast member in one performance, she assumed such roles as Daphne, The Dishwasher and The Speed Tappist. She had a cameo in the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives, and appeared in a national television commercial for Bayer Aspirin. Ms. Vieira has also graced the cover of numerous magazines including TV Guide, Ladies Home Journal and MORE.
Heavily involved with numerous philanthropic organizations, Ms. Vieira is a frequent contributor to several charitable foundations. She is also part of Club Mom's Senior Advisory Board, as well as one of its seven co-founders, along with actor Andrew Shue, which officially launched in May 2004. In May 2001, she received the Safe Horizon Champion Award and from City of Hope the Woman of the Year Award. She has also been honored by the Anti-Defamation League. In April 2004, she received the Mother of the Year Award from The Pajama Program, which collects and distributes bedtime books and pajamas to underprivileged children.
UNITED STATES