L. Jon Wertheim was born on November 11, 1970, in Bloomington, Indiana, the son of two academics. He attended Bloomington High School North before graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1993. After a gap year working for the Portland Trail Blazers’ in-house magazine, he earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Still, he chose to pursue journalism, joining Sports Illustrated in 1996.

Wertheim joined 60 Minutes on CBS as a full-time correspondent in 2017. He has covered several topics for the newsmagazines, from Saudi Arabia’s sports investments to corruption in Malta, the Ohio State University abuse scandal, and the Ukraine war’s impact on ballet. In June 2026, he was one of just three remaining 60 Minutes correspondents — alongside Lesley Stahl and Bill Whitaker — who publicly committed to staying on amid major upheaval at the program.

Beyond CBS, Wertheim serves as a tennis analyst and courtside interviewer for Tennis Channel at the Grand Slam tournaments. He was also the executive producer and on-air reporter for Surviving Ohio State, the HBO Max documentary. Additionally, he has authored 11 books, including the New York Times bestsellers Scorecasting (with Tobias Moskowitz) and You Can’t Make This Up (with Al Michaels).