Anderson Cooper choked up as he signed off from 60 Minutes for the last time on Sunday night, after two decades on the show, with a heartfelt farewell tribute to the flagship newsmagazine\u2019s journalistic value and historic importance.<\/p>\n
The veteran journalist delivered<\/a> his final report for the programme during the season finale, which would be his last, before growing visibly emotional as he attempted to record his closing line: \u201cI\u2019m Anderson Cooper.\u201d<\/p>\n After pausing for several seconds and looking down to compose himself, he repeated the sign-off three times, a long-running tradition on the show.<\/p>\n In an extended 60 Minutes: Overtime, Cooper reflected on his over 20 years as a correspondent for the show. At the open of segment, when one interviewer informed him of his two decade span at the show, Cooper replied, \u201cWow, it\u2019s been a hell of a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Clips rolled of past assignments and interviews, from celebrities to lawmakers and business moguls, cut with commentary from Cooper.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my last shoot for 60 Minutes. 60 Minutes has always been a place, at least for me, that you get to step into somebody else\u2019s shoes. You get to see things through their eyes and see what their struggles are and what they are facing and you learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper added that he first began watching 60 Minutes after his father died and that the show stood out for its \u201ctrusted\u201d and \u201chard-hitting\u201d reporting, as he fondly recalled the familiar names of past CBS correspondents and striking stories they brought.<\/p>\n Cooper also said that when he finally landed the role he \u201ccould not believe\u201d he had made it to the show and recalled how after legendary reporter Bob Simon died, he was given his office, and still keeps a bottle of scotch that was left behind by the man, who he noted later repeatedly inspired him in the field.<\/p>\n Further clips ran that included interviews<\/a> with Prince Harry, actor Donald Sutherland, and singer Lady Gaga, but Cooper said the stories that stayed with him most involved ordinary people.<\/p>\n Recalling stories reporting across Africa over the years Cooper said, \u201cThat\u2019s the great thing about 60 Minutes is that if you pitch a story of like, \u2018I think this is a really important story. Let\u2019s go and do it.\u2019 They\u2019ll say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing is, it\u2019s never felt like work. It\u2019s felt like you\u2019re stepping into people\u2019s lives, and you\u2019re invited into people homes,\u201d he added. \u201cYou\u2019re invited into their struggles, you\u2019re invited into whatever it is that has brought them to be on 60 Minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper, who joined the programme in 2006 while continuing to anchor Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0 on CNN, said balancing the two jobs had become increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole time I\u2019ve done pieces for 60 Minutes, my full-time job has been over at CNN and still is, and it\u2019s been really challenging to do the kind of work you need to do to have a great 60 Minutes piece,\u201d he said. \u201cCNN doesn\u2019t like it if I take a lot of time off to work on a 60 Minutes piece, so I\u2019ve worked mostly for 60 Minutes on weekends. My vacation time at CNN has been working on 60 Minutes pieces, and I\u2019ve loved it, but it\u2019s been tough.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that raising his young sons, Wyatt and Sebastian, ultimately drove the decision to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve 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,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n Breaker\u2019s Lachlan Cartwright first reported<\/a> that Cooper had turned down an offer to remain at the show in February.<\/p>\n His departure comes during a volatile stretch for CBS News following a string of editorial departures and on-air shake-ups, including at 60 Minutes, tied to the arrival of Bari Weiss as the network\u2019s editor-in-chief, after parent company Paramount merged with Skydance.<\/p>\n Amid all that change, Cooper\u2019s parting segment included a desire that, \u201cI hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes. There\u2019s very few things that have been around for as long as 60 Minutes has and maintain the quality that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThings can always evolve and change and I think that\u2019s awesome and things should evolve and change,\u201d he continued.\u00a0\u201cBut I hope the core of what 60 Minutes is always remains.\u201d<\/p>\n In the final moments of the Overtime segment, a roll of predecessor sign-offs played before Cooper was seen attempting several times to sign off, choking up before finally managing to hit his closing line \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m Anderson Cooper\u201d \u2013 for the last time.<\/p>\n Watch above via CBS.<\/p>\n The post Anderson Cooper Fights Back Tears in Final \u201960 Minutes\u2019 Sign-Off After Two Decades: \u2018Hell of a Ride\u2019<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anderson Cooper choked up as he signed off from 60 Minutes for the last time on Sunday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[81995,113771,430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-433231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-60-minutes","tag-anderson-cooper","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}