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Steve Jobs is Barbara Walters’ “Most Fascinating Person” of 2011

The TV journalist revealed her annual selection Wednesday during her ABC special, “Barbara Walters Presents: The Most Fascinating People.”

Walters explained that it used to be a rule that the top honor went to a living person.

Jobs was originally selected when he announced his retirement from Apple over the summer.

RELATED – Kim Kardashian Talks To Barbara Walters About Her Sex Tape

But after his death from pancreatic cancer in October, Walters and her staff decided he still deserved the title.

“It’s unlikely there will ever be anyone like him again,” she said.

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Also on Walters’ list of fascinating people: the Kardashian women, Katy Perry, Derek Jeter, Donald Trump, Hermain Cain, Pippa Middleton, Amanda Knox and “Modern Family” duo Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

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On “Barbara Walters Presents: The Most Fascinating People,” the veteran journalist grilled Kim Kardashian and her family about their controversial rise to fame.

Kardashian, previously best known as Paris Hilton‘s close pal, become a celebrity in her own right after a sex tape featuring then-boyfriend Ray J leaked in 2007.

“I’ve made mistakes in my life, for sure,” Kardashian told Walters when asked about the tape.

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Mom Kris Jenner, who was also interviewed along with Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, added that the leak “was devastating.”

RELATED – Barbara Walters: “You Cannot Trust The Kardashians”

But the entrepreneurial Jenner decided to turn lemons into lemonade.

“You hire a really good attorney and you make something better happen,” she explained.

Several reality TV shows later, the rest, as they say, is pop culture history.

The interview, which was conducted prior to Kardashian’s recent split from Kris Humphries, aired on ABC Wednesday.

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Barbara Walters, who named the Kardashian sisters among 2011′s “Most Fascinating People,” now seems a little miffed with the famous family.

Walters revealed on “The Late Show with David Letterman” Tuesday that she interviewed Kim, Kourtney and Khloe earlier in the fall and specifically asked if anything momentous would be happening in the coming months.

The women insisted Walters was safe to do the interview then because nothing was going to change.

“Then Kim gets [divorced]. Then Kourtney gets pregnant. Then Khloe’s moving to Dallas,” Walters exclaimed to Letterman. “You cannot trust the Kardashians.”

Walters echoed her comments Wednesday on “The View,” noting that in hindsight, the only hint of possible trouble to come was the sisters agreeing Kim is the worst at dealing with men.

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Walters’ interview with the Kardashians, along with her other “Most Fascinating” picks, will be revealed Wednesday night on ABC.

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Barbara Walters fulfilled a dream on Thursday by broadcasting her interview with the cast of “Jersey Shore.”

The segment ran as part of Walters’ annual “Most Fascinating People” special.

Her first question to the group – whose main activities, Walters tells us, are “tanning, partying, and making out with strangers” –  is whether they consider themselves to be “fascinating.”

The five-minute collision of Walters with the likes of Snooki and The Situation is mesmerizing.

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The numbers are just in.

Barbara Walters beat Oprah Winfrey… and President Obama.

“Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009,” which featured First Lady Michelle Obama, scored 10.6 million viewers for ABC, and beat Oprah’s widely publicized “Christmas at the White House” special in key demographics.

Not only did the Walters special, which highlighted (among others) Glenn Beck, Lady Gaga, Sarah Palin, and Michael Jackson‘s children, beat Winfrey, it also nearly doubled the viewership of Matt Lauer‘s “NBC People of the Year” program.

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Wow! Among Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People of 2009” are the children of the Michael Jackson.

Gossip Cop can confirm that Walters tapped Jackson’s three kids, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II (a.k.a. Blanket) for her ABC special, which airs on December 9. The news veteran, however, did not actually interview them for the show. 

Other people tapped as the “Most Fascinating” include, Lady Gaga, Glenn Beck, Tyler Perry, Sarah Palin, Brett Favre, and, as Gossip Cop noted last week, Kate Gosselin, South Carolina’s First Lady Jenny Sanford whose husband Governor Mark Sanford cheated on her, and Adam Lambert. 

The number One Most Fascinating Person will be announced on the show.

In choosing people for the list, Walters said, “All of our subjects have been through extremely significant events in their personal lives or careers this year.”

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It’s that time of the year when Barbara Walters snags highly coveted interviews for her annual “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People” special.

So far we’re told among the 2009 most fascinating are Kate Gosselin, Adam Lambert, and Jenny Sanford, wife of philandering South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

Gossip Cop will update you as more information comes in.

The special is set to air on ABC on December 9.

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