A former ABC News field producer has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman of sexual harassment and accusing ABC News and The Walt Disney Co. of wrongful termination, disability discrimination and retaliation. Samira Said, who worked as a field producer in ABC's Los Angeles bureau from May 2021 until her termination in March 2025, filed the suit on Thursday.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the complaint alleges that while Said and Gutman were waiting in a public line during an assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent's physical appearance and assigned her a numerical score based on her attributes, encouraging other male crew members to join in. Male crew members allegedly did join the discussion and solicit Said's views, though she said she declined to participate. The Times reports the suit also describes a second incident at a movie release press event, where Gutman allegedly made a sexualized insinuation in front of multiple coworkers that Said must have an after-hours date in the city after she disagreed with him on when to leave the work site.
Said claims those remarks were demeaning and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype, and that the pattern of conduct amounted to a hostile work environment. Gutman has denied Said's harassment claims. The Walt Disney Co. has declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Wildfire Coverage and a Denied Leave Request
Beyond the harassment allegations, the lawsuit accuses ABC News of failing to accommodate Said after she was injured on the job. Said was assigned to cover the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and was sent home three weeks into that assignment, according to the filing described by the Times. She had reported a foot injury sustained while covering a weather-related story to her supervisors, and a supervisor reportedly observed her deteriorating physical condition.
Said requested a short health-related leave, which her supervisor denied, and ABC News later denied her leave request following a company-doctor evaluation, the lawsuit states. A psychiatrist had approved medical leave for Said, who the suit says was also experiencing mental health issues. Despite the denial, David Herndon, who was head of ABC's Los Angeles bureau, continued to send her assignment requests after her medical leave began, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also references Said's earlier assignment covering the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where she was required to interview child survivors. Her complaint accuses ABC News of failing to make accommodations for the toll of that and other high-stress assignments, including the wildfire coverage. Said is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys' fees, and her suit accuses ABC News of violating California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.
A Rising Profile at CBS Before the Filing
The lawsuit lands just weeks after a high point in Gutman's new role at CBS News. Gutman, 48, spent 17 years at ABC News before joining CBS News in January, where he became Bari Weiss's first high-profile talent hire after she took over as CBS News editor-in-chief in October 2025. He has reported mostly from Los Angeles as a CBS News chief correspondent.
Nielsen data cited by Hindustan Times shows that for the week of July 27, 2026, CBS Evening News averaged 4.1 million viewers with Gutman filling in as guest anchor — the broadcast's highest weekly audience in 17 weeks and its first time topping 4 million viewers since March 2026. The same figures show Gutman scored higher ratings than regular anchor Tony Dokoupil during that stretch. The strong numbers came shortly before Said's lawsuit became public, adding scrutiny to a hire CBS had positioned as a marquee addition to its news division.
Gutman's tenure at ABC was not without prior controversy. As reported by AP News, ABC News suspended Gutman in January 2020 for an inaccurate on-air report following the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, in which he incorrectly stated that all four of Bryant's daughters were on board. Gutman later wrote in a 2023 memoir, No Time to Panic: How I Curbed My Anxiety and Conquered a Lifetime of Panic Attacks, that his struggle with panic disorder had publicly surfaced during that 2020 coverage.
A Notable Professional Collaboration Before the Split
The dispute is complicated by the fact that Gutman and Said had recently worked together on award-nominated coverage. In August 2026, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences nominated the ABC News team — including Gutman and Said — for a News & Documentary Emmy Award for coverage of the Southern California fire emergency, according to nominee records published by the Emmys. That professional recognition came even as Said's employment dispute with ABC News was already underway.
Legal Backdrop for the Claims
Said's suit invokes California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, which applies to state employers with five or more employees and imposes strict legal liability on companies for supervisory harassment and workplace retaliation, according to the Workplace Rights Law Group. Separately, a procedural change took effect this year: as of January 1, 2026, California's Senate Bill 477 amended FEHA procedures to expand the tolling of statutes of limitations for employees who appeal administrative closure decisions with the California Civil Rights Department before filing civil lawsuits, per Nixon Peabody LLP.
The legal filing arrives amid broader upheaval at CBS News. In March 2026, CBS News under Weiss announced it would permanently shut down its 99-year-old CBS News Radio service by May 22, 2026, eliminating associated positions as part of a division-wide restructuring, according to the Washington Post. CBS News has not publicly commented on Said's lawsuit. The case remains at an early pleading stage in Los Angeles Superior Court.
