Anderson Cooper is ending his time at 60 Minutes.
The CNN anchor, who has been a correspondent at the CBS newsmagazine for nearly two decades, opted not to renew his contract with 60 Minutes, sources say. Cooper’s final segment for the show, an interview with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, aired Sunday.
Cooper remains with CNN, where he anchors the nightly Anderson Cooper 360 and a weekly newsmagazine, The Whole Story. He also hosts a podcast and streaming show called All There Is. His work for 60 Minutes came as part of an agreement between CNN, his full-time employer, and CBS.
The media newsletter Breaker first reported Cooper’s departure.
“Being a correspondent at 60 Minutes has been one of the great honors of my career,” Cooper said in a statement. “I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors, and camera crews in the business. For nearly twenty years, I’ve been able to balance my jobs at CNN and CBS, but I have little kids now and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they still want to spend time with me.”
Cooper’s departure marks the first big on-air change for 60 Minutes under the CBS News leadership of editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. The long-running program came under intense scrutiny in December when Weiss made an 11th-hour decision to pull a story focused on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, where the Trump administration has sent a number of deportees.
Weiss defended the decision, saying the story from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi was “not ready,” partly because it had no on-the-record response from the White House (the story noted 60 Minutes made several attempts to secure comment). The piece eventually ran on Jan. 18.
Cooper began his tenure on 60 Minutes during the 2006-07 season. His work with the newsmagazine won two News and Documentary Emmys in 2017, for the segments “The Music of Zomba Prison” (best feature story in a newsmagazine) and “Little Jazz Man” (best arts, culture and entertainment report).
