CBS anchor Matt Gutman, who recently took on a prominent role to help improve the network’s ratings, is now facing a sexual harassment lawsuit linked to incidents from his past.
The lawsuit was filed Friday by Samira Said, a former field producer for ABC News, who claims Gutman made inappropriate sexual remarks during two separate assignments several years ago.
Said’s complaint was submitted to the Los Angeles Superior Court, naming Gutman, ABC News, and parent company Walt Disney Co. as defendants.
One incident involves Gutman allegedly discussing a female correspondent’s looks while she waited at a pay phone, where he reportedly spoke about her physical appearance in a numerical and evaluative manner.
The lawsuit states that Gutman initiated a conversation to assess the correspondent’s looks, effectively reducing her professional worth to a numerical score based on her physical traits.
Other male crew members allegedly joined in on the conversation and sought Said’s input, which she declined, insisting that it was an inappropriate topic.
A second reported incident occurred during a press event for a film’s release, where a disagreement arose about whether to leave the scene. Supposedly, Gutman responded to the disagreement by making sexual innuendos about Said in front of colleagues, which she found humiliating.
These allegations are part of a broader case involving wrongful termination against ABC. Said, who was employed as a field producer for four years, claims she was improperly fired in 2025 after experiencing mental health challenges.
She alleges that ABC failed to accommodate her needs in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Said had been assigned to cover the tragic 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas and expressed a need for a brief leave to attend to her health, which was denied by her superiors, although she later received medical leave approval from a psychiatrist.
The lawsuit claims that even after her leave started, ABC’s then-Los Angeles bureau chief continued to send her new assignment requests.
She was also tasked with covering the Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025 but was sent home after her supervisor noticed her health was worsening.
Later that year, while covering a weather-related story, Said injured her leg and reported the injury to her supervisor, only to be denied sick leave after an examination by a company doctor, according to the lawsuit.
Said is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney’s fees.
Gutman joined CBS News in January after spending 17 years at ABC, primarily focused on reporting in Los Angeles. He was the first significant hire by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who took over in October 2025.
Recently, CBS Evening News reported an audience average of 4.1 million viewers for the week of July 27, marking its highest viewership in 17 weeks.
The lawsuit comes shortly after Gutman shared an experience where he nearly fell for a sophisticated phone scam. He mentioned in a July video that a caller, posing as a bank fraud prevention employee and armed with his personal information, almost led him to empty his account before he realized something was off.
