Anderson Cooper Announces Exit From ’60 Minutes’

Anderson Cooper is leaving “60 Minutes” after nearly two decades with the program in...

Anderson Cooper is leaving “60 Minutes” after nearly two decades with the program in the latest CBS News shakeup.

“Being a correspondent at 60 Minutes has been one of the great honors of my career. I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors, and camera crews in the business,” Cooper said in a statement, according to Deadline.

“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,” he continued.

Ten people familiar with the workings of CBS News say the Paramount Skydance unit is veering toward dysfunction, with a management team led by Bari Weiss that doesn’t value the standards held by veteran journalists — and a staff that views its editor-in-chief and her hand-picked… pic.twitter.com/0x7oL2bMzC

— Variety (@Variety) January 20, 2026

The New York Post explained:

One early clash came after a “60 Minutes” segment on El Salvador’s CECOT prison was pulled from the broadcast shortly before airtime, prompting backlash inside the newsroom before it eventually aired and straining relations between veteran staff and new leadership.

The shakeups soon extended beyond the newsmagazine.

Weiss weighed broader changes to the on-air lineup — at one point pursuing Cooper for the “CBS Evening News” anchor role — before the broadcast was ultimately reorganized around Tony Dokoupil, drawing scrutiny within the network.

CBS News later carried out layoffs affecting dozens of employees, followed by buyouts that led 11 staffers, including multiple producers, to leave the “CBS Evening News.” The network is now preparing deeper cuts expected to impact about 15% of its workforce while also confronting internal criticism over editorial direction and newsroom morale.