Anderson Cooper will exit ’60 Minutes’ to focus on family and CNN role

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is walking away from his second job at “60 Minutes” in the latest sign of upheaval at the storied news magazine.

Cooper said in a statement Monday he is leaving the CBS News program because he wants to spend more time with his two young children. He joined the program in 2007 while maintaining his role as prime-time anchor at CNN.

“Being a correspondent at ’60 Minutes’ has been one of the great honors of my career,” Cooper said. “I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors and camera crews in the business. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been able to balance 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 want to spend time with me.”

Cooper’s departure could be the first of a number of changes for “60 Minutes” as Bari Weiss, who joined CBS News as editor in chief last October, is poised to substantially overhaul the prestigious news magazine.

CBS News overall is expected to be hit with a round of layoffs in the coming months, as TV ratings and ad revenue continue to decline and Weiss looks to make greater investments in digital operations.

Cooper, 58, was courted for the anchor role at “CBS Evening News” last year before the network parted ways with the anchor duo of Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson. Cooper signed a new deal with CNN instead, and CBS News gave the anchor job to Tony Doukopil.

“60 Minutes,” the most-watched news program on TV, has been in a turbulent state since late 2024, when President Trump sued CBS News for $20 billion over edits made to an interview with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the race for the White House.

The suit was settled for $16 million even though most 1st Amendment experts believed Trump’s claims were frivolous. But getting past the complaint without a lengthy trial was seen as necessary by former CBS News parent Paramount Global to assure regulatory clearance of its merger with Skydance Media.

The program faced a new controversy in December when Weiss — installed by new Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison to shift CBS News away from its liberal leanings — pulled a “60 Minutes” story on the Trump administration’s use of an El Salvador prison to house undocumented migrants from the U.S.

Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent of the piece that documented harsh conditions for Venezuelan migrants taken to CECOT, wrote an email to colleagues criticizing Weiss’ decision. Alfonsi said the story, vetted by lawyers and the standards and practices department, was held for political reasons.

The dust-up added to an emerging narrative that Weiss has a mandate to placate the White House as Paramount pursues a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, who financed the Paramount bid for Skydance and is backing the bid for Warner Bros., enjoys close ties with Trump.

Weiss, who made her decision a day before “Inside CECOT” was set to air, insisted on more reporting, including an interview with a member of the administration. But that never happened and “Inside CECOT” ran with only cursory changes on Jan 18.

Weiss later acknowledged that her lack of familiarity with the process of screening “60 Minutes” pieces and promoting program information in advance exacerbated the issue.