Vieira is the congenial, uncontrovesial former co-anchor of The Today Show and The View.

A second-generation Portuguese-American, Vieira moved into the national spotlight in 1985 when she was hired by CBS News in New York. In 1989, Viera joined the staff of 60 Minutes, but when she had her second baby and 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt refused to lessen her workload, she bolted for the ABC newsmagazine Turning Point. In 1997, Vieira received an offer from Barbara Walters to become the co-moderator of a female-centric chat show. The result, of course, was the The View, where Viera stayed for nine years. In 2002, her workload got considerably busier when she took over as host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from Regis Philbin. She left The View for Today in 2006 and was replaced by Rosie O'Donnell. In the spring of 2006, NBC chief Jeff Zucker offered Vieira a four-year, $30 million contract to fill the co-anchor role left vacant after Katie Couric's departure for CBS News. Taking cues from Couric, Vieira kept up the peppiness until 2011. These days she's contributing to Dateline and Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Vieira married Richard Cohen, a journalism professor at Columbia, in 1986. The couple has three children: Ben, Gabe, and Lily. Cohen, who wrote the 2004 book Blindsided about his struggles with multiple sclerosis, has also had two bouts with colon cancer. [Image via Getty]