Anderson Cooper’s time is up on “60 Minutes.”
The CNN anchor shared a tearful farewell with viewers on Sunday, stepping away from the long-running CBS news magazine after two decades as a correspondent.
Cooper explained that he’s leaving the show so he can spend more time with his young sons, Wyatt and Sebastian, as they grow up.
“I’ve got a 4-year-old and a just-now 6-year-old, and I want to spend as much time with them as I can while they still want to spend time with me,” the broadcast journalist said. “And those days, that clock, is ticking, I think.”
“I don’t think the reality has really hit me that I’m not going to be doing this any longer,” he added. “You know, to give up something you’ve watched since you were a kid. Yeah, I will miss this.”
For his final “60 Minutes” appearance, Cooper revisited his career in an “Overtime” segment, reflecting on a montage of sit-down interviews with figures like Prince Harry, Lady Gaga and Adele, along with conversations with lesser-known individuals whose stories also left an impact.
“The thing is, it’s never felt like work,” Cooper explained. “It’s felt like you’re stepping into people’s lives, and you’re invited into people’s homes.”
“You’re invited into their struggles,” he continued, “you’re invited into whatever it is that has brought them to be on ‘60 Minutes.’”
At the end of the segment, the emotional newsman looked into the camera one last time and delivered a teary sign-off of his “I’m Anderson Cooper” before walking off set.
Cooper first announced his departure from “60 Minutes” in February, saying he planned to step back from the program to focus more on his family.
“Being a correspondent at ‘60 Minutes’ has been one of the highlights of my career,” he 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.”
CBS also issued a statement thanking Cooper for his contributions, noting that for more than 20 years, he “took ‘60 Minutes’ viewers on journeys to faraway places, told us unforgettable stories, reported consequential investigations and interviewed many prominent figures.”
“We’re grateful to him for dedicating so much of his life to this broadcast, and understand the importance of spending more time with family,” the network added. “‘60 Minutes’ will be here if he ever wants to return.”
Cooper’s exit follows an overhaul of CBS’s news division after the merger of the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, and Skydance last August, which the FCC approved after Paramount settled a lawsuit by the Trump administration. The changes that followed included CBS News hiring writer Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief, a move that drew scrutiny given her lack of experience in broadcast news.
Other post-merger changes included the departure of Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson from “CBS Evening News” at the end of last year, with Tony Dokoupil stepping in as anchor.
In April 2025, amid the Trump administration lawsuit, “60 Minutes” producer Bill Owens resigned over what he described as a lack of journalistic independence at “60 Minutes.” Owens said it had become “clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”