Morley Safer, 60 Minutes’ longest-serving correspondent bids farewell to the show this week. CBS will send him off with a one-hour special Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life airing Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
“After more than 50 years of broadcasting on CBS News and 60 Minutes I have decided to retire,” Safer said. “It’s been a wonderful run, but the time has come to say goodbye to all of my friends at CBS and the dozens of people who kept me on the air. Most of all I thank the millions of people who have been loyal to our broadcast.”
Safer, 84, joined 60 Minutes in 1970. His first story was about the training of U.S. Sky Marshals. His last report — number 919 — was a profile of Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels that aired in March.
“Morley has had a brilliant career as a reporter and as one of the most significant figures in CBS News history, on our broadcast and in many of our lives,” said Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes. “Morley’s curiosity, his sense of adventure and his superb writing, all made for exceptional work done by a remarkable man.”
Safer, a Toronto native, joined CBS News in 1964 as a London correspondent. He opened the bureau in Saigon in 1965 and reported extensively on the Vietnam war. He returned to London as bureau chief in 1967 and joined 60 Minutes three years later when Harry Reasoner, one of the original correspondents, alongside Mike Wallace, left for ABC.