‘60 Minutes’ veteran Morley Safer to retire

Forty-six seasons will do it for veteran newsman Morley Safer, who will retire from “60 Minutes” on Sunday, May 15, CBS announced on Wednesday, May 11.

Safer will be in the spotlight with a special called “Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life,” which will air at 8 p.m. Sunday, directly after “60 Minutes.”

In a statement, 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.

Safer is a 12-time Emmy winner and has also won three prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards, among many other honors.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of CBS’ long-running newsmagazine show, praised Safer’s “curiosity, his sense of adventure and his superb writing” as reasons for his “exceptional work” for the show.

The CBS special on Safer will include commentary from NBC’s Tom Brokaw, historian David McCullough and retired Brig.

David Wiegand is the TV critic and an assistant managing editor of The San Francisco Chronicle.