CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman is facing a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former ABC News field producer, Samira Said. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, names Gutman, ABC News, and its parent company, The Walt Disney Co., as defendants. Said alleges that Gutman made inappropriate sexual remarks during two assignments several years ago.
According to the lawsuit, one incident occurred while Said and Gutman were waiting in line during an assignment. Said claims Gutman initiated a discussion where he rated the appearance of a female correspondent, reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on physical attributes. Other male crew members allegedly joined the conversation and prompted Said to weigh in, which she refused, deeming the discussion inappropriate.
A second alleged incident took place during a press event for a movie release. The suit states that Said and Gutman disagreed about leaving the work site, and Gutman responded with a sexualized insinuation about Said in front of coworkers. The lawsuit asserts that these comments were demeaning and reduced Said's professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.
These allegations against Gutman are part of a broader wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Said, who worked as an ABC News field producer for four years. She claims she was wrongfully fired in 2025 after dealing with mental health issues and accuses ABC of violating California's Fair Employment and Housing Act by failing to provide accommodations.
Said's suit details her experience covering the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where she interviewed child survivors. After this assignment, she requested a short leave for health reasons but was denied, though a psychiatrist later approved medical leave. The lawsuit states that David Herndon, then head of ABC's Los Angeles bureau, continued to send Said assignment requests shortly after her leave began. She was later sent home from a wildfire assignment due to her deteriorating physical condition and, weeks later, injured her foot while covering a weather-related story. The suit claims she was denied medical leave for this injury after being evaluated by a company doctor.
Said is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorneys' fees. Gutman, 48, spent 17 years at ABC News before joining CBS News in January. His fill-in anchor stint on "CBS Evening News" recently contributed to a ratings boost for the network, with the show averaging 4.1 million viewers for the week of July 27, its highest weekly audience in 17 weeks.