Barbara Walters announces final date as "The View" co-host

Barbara Walters plans to make her final appearance on "The View" on May 16.

Later that night, ABC will air a two-hour prime-time special on her career.

"This was the right time," Walters told AARP The Magazine. The kinds of interviews I did all these years, nobody wants them anymore. You have three minutes of a morning show. That's different from before. I don't want to do anything forever."

Walters, who is 84, began in television in 1961 and became one of the medium's best-known interviewers.

In 2013, she announced that she would retire from regular TV appearances. The news came shortly after longtime co-hosts Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck exited the series.

Walters will remain involved behind the scenes as an executive producer at "The View," the daytime talk show she co-created with Bill Geddie in 1997, now in its 17th season.

ABC said Monday that Walters will be a lifelong member of the ABC News team, and will make special appearances as news warrants.