Mike Wallace wants to make it clear that he is not being pushed out of CBS — he’s just retiring because he’s old.

“When asked in an interview last April if he would ever consider retiring from 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace said that he planned to do so only ‘when my toes turn up.’

‘Well,’ Mr. Wallace said, amending that statement in an interview today, ‘they’re just beginning to curl a trifle.’

You all know Wallace as a correspondent on 60 Minutes, a role he has held since the show’s beginning in September 1968. Today, Wallace announced his plans to retire this spring, at the close of the current television season.

Let the psychic predictions over who will take his spot (will it be Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Merideth Viera, or Elizabeth Vargas?) begin.

Confirmed: Mike Wallace Retiring [TV Newser]