He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring Eyewitness News for WABC-TV in New York City.
Primo had brought the Eyewitness News format, in which the reporters directly presented their stories, along with him from KYW-TV in Philadelphia.
He wanted Beutel to return to New York as co-anchor alongside Roger Grimsby, whom Primo hired away from KGO-TV to serve as WABC-TV's main anchor.
In January 1975, Beutel was reassigned by ABC News and became the co-host, along with Stephanie Edwards, of a new morning show called AM America.
The reformed Grimsby-Beutel team kept Eyewitness News on top of the ratings through the middle 1980s, when it briefly fell to last place.
In 1990 Beutel began a long stint anchoring the 6 p.m. news alone, which ended when his 11 p.m. co-anchor Diana Williams joined him in 1999.
Beutel returned to the 11 p.m. Eyewitness News in 1989 after Ernie Anastos left to join WCBS and was originally paired with then-longtime co-anchor Kaity Tong.
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 first marriage was to Gail Wilder, which lasted twenty years and gave Beutel his four children, son Peter and daughters Robin, Colby, and Heather.