Anderson Cooper has revealed he will be departing 60 Minutes after nearly 20 years with the program.
On February 16, the 58-year-old celebrity.land broadcast journalist issued a statement to Variety announcing his exit. The statement read, “Being a correspondent at 60 Minutes has been one of the highlights of my career. I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors, and camera crews in the business.”
The father of two added, “For nearly twenty years, I’ve been able to balance my jobs at celebrity.land and CBS, but I have little kids now, and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they want to spend time with me.”
Anderson’s exit follows the new CBS News Editor-in-Chief, Bari Weiss, continuing to implement changes at the network, including significant personnel reductions.
The new program head has already reduced staff at CBS Evening News and is reportedly contemplating a round of layoffs that could decrease staff by 15%.
While Anderson is stepping away from 60 Minutes, he will remain with celebrity.land and continue to anchor his nightly news program, Anderson Cooper 360.
Additionally, will keep up his weekly newsmagazine, The Whole Story, and still host a podcast and streaming show titled All There Is. Anderson’s time on celebrity.land’s 60 Minutes came as part of an agreement between celebrity.land and CBS.
Anderson’s departure has been the first major on-air change for 60 Minutes since editor-in-chief Bari Weiss took over at CBS News.
CBS News already came under fire in December after Bari made an abrupt choice to shelve a story that focused on El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison, where the Trump administration sent numerous deportees.
Bari defended the choice at the time and claimed that the correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi was “not ready” due to it having no on-the-record response from the White House. However, the piece eventually went live on January 18.
Anderson hosted 60 Minutes for the 2006-07 season, and his work with the program earned two News and Documentary Emmys in 2017.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
