Meredith Vieira

About Meredith Vieira

Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an Emmy Award-winning American journalist, television personality, and game show host. She currently co-hosts NBC's Today as well as continuing to host Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in syndication. She previously co-hosted ABC's daytime talk show The View (from 1997 to 2006), She also hosted Intimate Portrait, a series on Lifetime Television.

Meredith Vieira was born in East Providence, Rhode Island to Mary Elsie Rosa Silveira Vieira (1914-2004) and Dr. Edwin Vieira (1904-1987), both first generation Portuguese-Americans. All four for Vieira’s grand parents came from the Azores, three from Faial Island, one of the nine islands in the archipelago. They all left for a better life in New England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – settling around Providence, RI. She is the youngest of four children, with three older brothers. Vieira attended the Lincoln School, a Quaker all-girls school in Providence. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Tufts University and began her career in 1975 as a news announcer for WORC radio in Worcester, Massachusetts. She began a career in television working as a local reporter and anchor at WJAR-TV Providence, eventually making her way into the newsroom at WCBS-TV in New York City where she was an investigative reporter from 1979 to 1982.

Vieira first gained national recognition as a CBS reporter based in their Chicago bureau from 1982 to 1984. She later became a correspondent for nationwide news-magazine shows including West 57th (1985–89) and 60 Minutes (1989–91). Her final assignment at CBS was as co-anchor of the CBS Morning News (1992–93). She moved to ABC initially as a correspondent for the news-magazine show Turning Point (1993–97). Following the cancellation of Turning Point, Vieira realized: