Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: 60 minutes, anderson cooper

Anderson Cooper Departing CBS News' 60 Minutes After Nearly 20 Years

Whatever ends up happening to 60 Minutes under CBS News' Bari Weiss' watch, it's going to happen without correspondent Anderson Cooper.

Published Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:42:07 -0600

by Ray Flook

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Article Summary

Anderson Cooper is leaving CBS News' 60 Minutes after nearly 20 years as a correspondent.
He cites wanting to spend more time with his young children as a main reason for his departure.
Cooper will focus on his growing presence at CNN, including The Whole Story and All There Is.
His exit follows recent CBS News controversies under Bari Weiss's leadership.

After nearly twenty years as a correspondent for the long-running news magazine, journalist, anchor, and kick-ass New Year's Eve co-host Anderson Cooper is exiting CBS News' 60 Minutes. "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 shared in a statement. "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." Though he had been splitting his time between 60 Minutes and his full-time work at CNN, Cooper made the decision not to renew with the network news show. In 2025, Cooper signed a new deal with CNN, as his presence at the new network continues to grow (including Sunday news magazine The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper and the podcast/streaming series All There Is).

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Anderson Cooper during Wednesday's October 4, 2023 show. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS ©2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The news comes amid downsizing at CBS News, the controversial hiring of Peter Attia (who has appeared in recently released pages from the Epstein Files, and growing concern that CBS News Chief of Staff Bari Weiss is continuing to make the news division Trump-friendly. Back in December, Weiss pulled a segment from the long-running news program that was critical of the Trump Administration, only hours before it was set to air. In the segment, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi spoke with several Venezuelan individuals who were detained in El Salvador's CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo/Terrorism Confinement Center) by the Trump Administration to discuss the brutal and torturous conditions they endured. Though the segment was cleared by the network's legal department and Standards and Practices, and given the green light to be sent to the press for promotion, the notice went out only hours before it was set to air that the segment was being pulled for a "future broadcast" (we have a full timeline of the controversy that followed here). The segment would eventually air a month later.

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