CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman faces sexual harassment allegations in a lawsuit filed by a former ABC News colleague who alleges he made inappropriate sexual remarks during two assignments while both worked at ABC.
Former ABC News field producer Samira Said named Gutman, ABC News, and parent company The Walt Disney Co. as defendants in the suit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Said worked in ABC’s Los Angeles bureau from May 2021 until March 2025.
The complaint alleges discrimination, hostile work environment harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate medical conditions, and wrongful termination.
According to the filing, Said was placed on a male-only team that included Gutman and two other male crew members. During one assignment, the lawsuit alleges Gutman initiated a conversation rating a female correspondent’s appearance.
“While the team waited in a public queue during the assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent’s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes.”
The other crew members allegedly joined in and tried to draw Said into the conversation. She declined and told them the discussion was inappropriate, according to the complaint.
In a second alleged incident, Said and Gutman disagreed during a press day for a film release about whether the team should leave the site.
The suit alleges Gutman responded by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city — implying that’s why she didn’t want to relocate. The remark was made audibly in front of multiple coworkers, the filing states.
Her attorneys wrote the comment “demeaned Said and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.”
CBS News did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Representatives for ABC News and Disney also did not respond. The allegations have not been tested in court, and Gutman has not publicly responded to them.
The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.
The lawsuit also details Said’s broader complaints against ABC News. She alleges she was assigned in May 2022 to cover the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, while still experiencing COVID-19 symptoms — and was required to interview child survivors.
Said reported severe psychological symptoms afterward and asked her supervisor for a short leave, which was declined, according to the filing.
She was granted medical leave from August 2022 through January 2023, but her bureau chief allegedly continued sending her assignment requests during that time. Her psychiatrist cleared her to return in January 2023 subject to accommodations, but the complaint alleges ABC denied them.
HR gave her an ultimatum: return without accommodations or not at all, the suit claims.
Said also alleges she was struck by heavy equipment while covering severe weather in 2025, causing a bone contusion. She reported it, but a Disney physician determined the injury did not require leave, according to the suit.
ABC fired her in March 2025, shortly after.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees.
Gutman joined CBS News on Jan. 5 after 17 years at ABC News, where he was chief national correspondent. CBS Evening News averaged 4.1 million viewers during the week of July 27 while he filled in for vacationing anchor Tony Dokoupil — the show’s best week in 17 weeks and the first above 4 million since late March, per Nielsen data.
A CBS spokesperson attributed the bump to a heavier news week across all broadcasts.
Gutman was the first major on-air hire by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who took over the division in October 2025 and installed Dokoupil at Evening News shortly afterward.
