In 2001 Ritter also replaced Beutel as the 6 p.m. anchor, and after that Beutel spent the final two years of his career serving as a senior correspondent and occasional commentator. In the latter role he was given a segment called "Final Thought", which aired at the end of the 6 p.m. "Eyewitness News" where Beutel gave a brief commentary on an issue of the day, usually a brief summary of the top stories/headlines of the newscast in one minute or less. Beutel retired from television in February 2003, having served as an anchor at WABC-TV for a total of 37 years—giving him the longest run in New York television history until he was surpassed by Rafael Pineda, who has been anchor at Spanish-language station WXTV since 1972. Beutel remained the longest-serving anchor at an English-language station in New York City until April 2011, when he was surpassed by WNBC's Chuck Scarborough. His trademark sign off was "Good luck, be well." Beutel was married four times. His first marriage was to Gail Wilder, which lasted twenty years and gave Beutel his four children, son Peter and daughters Robin, Colby, and Heather. He married actress Lynn Deerfield, twenty years his junior, in 1975 but the marriage was brief, as was Beutel's third marriage in 1977 which only lasted four months. In 1980 Beutel married Adair Atwell, a former tobacco industry lobbyist. Following his retirement, Beutel moved to North Carolina with his wife. A short while later, he was found to have a degenerative brain condition that was eventually diagnosed as Lewy body dementia. The condition progressed as Beutel aged and it eventually claimed his life on March 19, 2006 at the age of 75. Beutel was survived by his wife Adair, as well as his former wives, and his four children from his first marriage; he has since been joined in death by his son Peter, a businessman and energy sector analyst who died of a heart attack in March 2012, and his second wife Lynn Deerfield, who died in 2011.