The LA Times reports that after 33 years of piquant and sometimes irascible commentary, 92-year-old Andy Rooney will surrender his regular gig on CBS’ legendary newsmagazine “60 Minutes” this weekend.
Rooney, who has been an OPC member since 1947 and received the President’s Award in 2010, will sign off with a final piece — his 1,097th — on Sunday’s program, preceded by a retrospective segment on his career with longtime colleague Morley Safer, the network said in a news release Tuesday.
OPC President Allan Dodds Frank interviewed Rooney for the OPC Awards dinner in 2010. Videos from this interview are included in this post.
In addition to his own often attention-grabbing views — he once scolded those who mourned the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain by saying he’d never even heard of the Nirvana frontman before then — the beetle-browed Rooney is one of the last on-air links to the glory days of CBS News, when “60 Minutes” regularly topped the ratings and anchorman Walter Cronkite was dubbed “the most trusted man in America.”
Virtually all of Rooney’s on-air colleagues from when he joined “60 Minutes” in 1978 — including Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner and Ed Bradley — have either retired or died; only Safer, 79, and Bob Schieffer, the 74-year-old host of “Face the Nation,” remain at work.
“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be. He’ll hate hearing this, but he’s an American original,” Jeff Fager, the chairman CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes,” said in a statement. “It’s harder for him to do it every week, but he will always have the ability to speak his mind on ’60 Minutes’ when the urge hits him.”
TVNewser reports: The three evening newscasts reported today’s news that Andy Rooney would be signing off from “60 Minutes” this Sunday. ABC’s Diane Sawyer, a former “60 Minutes” correspondent said, “A salute from an old pal over here, Andy, to you.”
Brian Williams on NBC News reported the story around the same time — :22 minutes into the newscast — with with Rooney-esque, “Did you ever notice how some people become more than just television personalities, and instead become more like guests in our homes?” CBS’s Scott Pelley voiced a show-closing package on Rooney’s departure with the tease: “That last commentary comes this Sunday on ’60 minutes’ at the end of a broadcast that features a story about Andy’s life and times reported by Morley Safer. We always save the best for last.”