Anderson Cooper signed off from 60 Minutes after 20 years on Sunday, paying tribute to the newsmagazine’s legacy, quality and independence.
Cooper announced in February that he would be exiting the show, deciding not to renew his contract in which he has done dual duty as a correspondent for the show while still anchoring full-time for CNN.
“I don’t think the reality has hit me that I’m not going to be doing this any longer, you know to give up something you’ve watched since you were a kid,” Cooper said in a segment that was posted to 60 Minutes Overtime. “Yeah, I will miss this.”
“I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes. There’s very few things that have been around as long as 60 Minutes has and mainatined the quality that it has. And things can always evolve and change, and I think that’s awesome. And things should evolve and change, but I hope the core of what 60 Minutes is always remains.”
He added, “I think the independence of 60 Minutes has been incredible. I think also the variety of stories. And I think the trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of 60 Minutes.”
Cooper’s departure comes after a turbulent time for the show. In December, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss pulled a segment on CECOT prison, the infamous El Salvadoran facility where the Trump administration sent deportees last year, even though the piece already had been promoted as airing that week.
The correspondent on the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, objected to the decision, calling it a “political” move and corporate interference. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,” Alfonsi wrote in an email to staffers.
Weiss defended the decision to pull the piece, telling staffers the next day that she held the story because it was “not ready.”
“We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera,” she said, apparently referring to a Trump administration official who could address the deportations.
The segment eventually did air four weeks later, intact from its original version, with Alfonsi recording a new intro and postscript.
In a speech earlier this month, Alfonsi said that she refused changes to the story, per The Guardian, which reiterating her contention of corporate interference. She also said that her future was unclear at the show. There also has been reports that other changes are afoot for the show, one of the highest rated shows on broadcast TV.
The 60 Minutes Overtime segment implicitly cautioned of messing with the show’s success and high standards. “The bar is high,” Cooper said. The segment featured not just extensive clips of Cooper’s time with the show, but of the legacy of the newsmagazine, going back to its origin in 1968 with Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner, continuing with correspondents including Ed Bradley and Bob Simon, and to the present day.
Cooper said that he’s largely worked on 60 Minutes pieces on weekends and during vacation time, and now wanted to spend more time with his kids, aged four and six.
“I want to spend as much time with them as I can, while they still want to spend time with me,” Cooper said. “And these days that clock is ticking.”
