Barbara Walters Went Out on Top

Barbara Walters has had an incomparable, decades-spanning career, and you better believe people gave her the respect and attention she deserved from her retirement from television journalism. According to Entertainment Weekly, Walters' star-studded, final episode of The View -- which included appearances and tributes from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts, and Connie Chung, among others -- brought in a whopping 5.2 million viewers. In Nielsen terms that means that the final Walters episode made it the The View's "fourth-ranked broadcast of all-time" and "the most-watched telecast in over a year and a half among women 18-49 (818,000) and women 25-54 (1 million)."

Walters' highly-publicized second-to-last episode, which reunited her with all of the former co-hosts of The View (Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Joy Behar, Debbie Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck) with the current crop of co-hosts (Sherri Shepherd, Jenny McCarthy and Whoopi Goldberg) didn't do too shabby either. EW reports that Walters' penultimate View episode "averaged 4.2 million" fans tuning in to see the reunion. "I'm so proud that we are still friends. Not everyone can say that and work with everyone and still love them," Walters said to her co-hosts during the broadcast.

So how did Walters celebrate her big ratings victory? Well, most likely by not celebrating at all. The 84-year-old legend told ABC News she planned to spend her first real day of retirement (which would technically be today) by lounging "in bed until 3 in the afternoon." Hey, if anyone's earned that right, it's the hardworking Barbara Walters.