– To the top. At the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last week, two new documentaries aired that, while wildly different, had something in common. Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything and Call Her Alex, the two-part documentary about podcaster Alex Cooper now streaming on Hulu, both showed what it took to get to the top of the male-dominated media business—in two very different eras.
Tell Me Everything traces the story of Barbara Walters, the first woman to co-anchor an evening news program in the U.S. She made her debut in that role on ABC in 1976, breaking the hardest glass ceiling for women in journalism and television. The film by director Jackie Jesko follows the barriers Walters continued to break, from her famous celebrity sitdown interviews to her late-in-life reinvention on The View, alongside her personal struggles. While she married, divorced, and had a child, her personal life often suffered, the documentary observes. “Her job was the love of her life,” one talking head says on camera.
“She was an incredibly ambitious woman who loved the work, loved being on TV, she loved the thrill of the chase, she loved the competition,” says Jesko. “She got a lot of joy out of it—and it doesn’t always have to be a huge personal life that brings someone joy.” Jane Rosenthal, the cofounder and CEO of the company behind the Tribeca Film Festival, adds: “We grew up with her—and you didn’t realize what she was really doing as a woman, that she was the only woman in the room, the kind of fights that she had to have.”
Still, other era-defining women in media, including Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric, reflect in the documentary about how seeing Walters’ path influenced their own choices. Couric says she knew she didn’t want to sacrifice her family life for her career, after seeing Walters.
Which brings us to the next Tribeca documentary. Alex Cooper, the host of Call Her Daddy and media mogul behind the Unwell network, has often been called the millennial or Gen Z Oprah. In Tell Me Everything, Winfrey remembers watching Walters to learn how to succeed as an on-air journalist. Without Barbara, there would be no Oprah. And without Oprah, there would be no Alex.
Cooper built Call Her Daddy within Barstool Sports, another overwhelmingly male-dominated media company. Her new documentary traces her upbringing, an experience of sexual harassment in college that she now says motivated her to never be silenced again, and the rise of her podcast.
Several decades after Walters’ career, Cooper doesn’t have to make the same trade-offs that Walters did. Her husband is her business partner. While Walters struggled with private insecurity about her appearance, another topic of Tell Me Everything, Cooper shares her most personal experiences and challenges with her audience. “She didn’t just build an audience, she built a movement,” Rosenthal said while introducing Call Her Alex. Rather than being beholden to someone else’s platform—like a television network—Cooper has been able to build her own.
Despite all these obvious differences, watching the films back-to-back, it’s clear Cooper and Walters have a lot in common. “I’m a competitive mother*******,” Cooper says. “I’m hard on myself.”
As much as the media industry has changed—the drive it takes to get to the top hasn’t.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Skims slowdown. NikeSkims, an athleisure partnership between Kim Kardashian’s Skims and Nike, is delaying its brand launch, which was originally planned for this spring. Now products are expected to be released at some point later this year. Bloomberg
– Next chapter. The Buss family is reportedly planning to sell the Los Angeles Lakers at a $10 billion valuation. Jeanie Buss, who has run the team as one of the most influential women in men’s sports, plans to stay on. ESPN
– Data-driven care. Maven Clinic, a virtual provider of women’s and family health services valued at $1.7 billion in October 2024, is joining forces with Oura, the maker of a smart ring that tracks health metrics. Maven will now be able to use its members’ Oura Ring data in its care offerings: “We really want to act on it to actually drive better outcomes,” said Maven CEO Kate Ryder of the partnership. CNBC
– What, like it’s hard? Actor Reese Witherspoon signed a podcast deal with iHeartMedia to accompany her monthly book club. Plus, after seven years of her media company Hello Sunshine, Witherspoon announced its younger sister Sunnie, a Gen-Z focused label, with teenage girls sitting on the advisory board. Variety
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Ametros, which helps people after medical insurance claims settlements, appointed Andrea Mills as executive managing director of Webster Bank and president of Ametros. Most recently, Mills was chief client officer of Ametros.
Maven Clinic, a women’s and family health virtual clinic, appointed Katie Rooney as CFO, Stephanie Glenn as chief commercial officer, and Susan Stick as chief legal and administrative officer. Most recently, Rooney was CFO and COO at Alight. Glenn was EVP, digital (marketing and commerce cloud) at Salesforce. Stick served as general counsel at Life360.
IPG Mediabrands appointed Stacy DeRiso as brand president of initiative. She most recently served as U.S. CEO of Initiative.
ON MY RADAR
The business of Black hair: Inside a $10bn global industry Financial Times
‘More babies and beef tallow, less blue hair and birth control’ The Cut
How America’s ideal woman got jacked Vox
PARTING WORDS
“You have to use your intuition and your magic to see below the surface.”
— Singer SZA on being curious
