60 Minutes: Morley Safer retiring after 46 seasons

Morley Safer is signing off.

The longest-serving 60 Minutes correspondent is formally retiring this week after 46 seasons on the newsmagazine and seven decades in the journalism business, CBS announced Wednesday.

The network will salute Safer this Sunday with the hour-long special Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life, which will follow the regular edition of 60 Minutes.

The special will trace Safer’s life from his birth in Toronto to his work as a war reporter in the 1950s and ’60s to his time on 60 Minutes. His first season as a regular correspondent on the program began in 1970 with a story about the training of U.S. Sky Marshals; his 919th and final report, a profile of the Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels, aired in March.

“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 said in a statement. “But most of all I thank the millions of people who have been loyal to our broadcast.”

Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Notebook will air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Watch a preview here.