“60 Minutes,” a crown jewel of broadcast journalism, is known for breaking big stories. This week, it has found itself at the center of one.

Scott Pelley, a longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” was fired Tuesday after a contentious staff meeting where he admonished management and criticized the long-running show’s new direction.

It was the latest in a string of staffing changes and controversies since the network’s parent company was acquired last year and Bari Weiss, a former member of The New York Times opinion staff and longtime critic of legacy media, was hired to lead the news division.

Here’s how CBS and “60 Minutes” ended up here.

CBS Parent Company, Paramount, Is Acquired

The shake-ups at CBS News began last year, when media company Skydance took over Paramount. The $8 billion deal placed Skydance’s founder, David Ellison, at the helm of a powerful media conglomerate.

Ellison pledged to overhaul Paramount. But he was inheriting steep financial challenges and morale issues: A month before the acquisition, Paramount agreed to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview. Many in the CBS newsroom viewed the settlement as a low point for the storied television network.

Ellison Appoints Weiss to Lead CBS News

In October, Paramount bought digital news startup The Free Press and appointed its founder, Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News. She was given a mandate to revamp the news division for the digital era.

Weiss’ first few months on the job were met with skepticism from staff. She bluntly asked “60 Minutes” journalists why the country believed they were biased, hired new on-air contributors and personally booked some guests for interviews, a departure from the industry norm.

In December, Weiss abruptly postponed a segment about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a “brutal” prison in El Salvador, saying it needed more reporting. Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who had reported the segment, called the move “political.” (The segment later aired in full, with additional comments from the Trump administration.)

At her first networkwide meeting in January, Weiss addressed the bumps of her early tenure and framed the future of CBS News in stark terms, warning employees that it would be “one hell of a fight” to keep pace in a rapidly changing business.

Weiss Names Nick Bilton to Lead ‘60 Minutes’ as Part of Staff Overhaul

Last Thursday, Weiss named Bilton, a former technology columnist for the Times and a filmmaker, to replace Tanya Simon as the show’s executive producer.

Bilton had never worked in traditional broadcast news, and his varied career was among the reasons Weiss was drawn to him, she said. But some members of the “60 Minutes” staff viewed Bilton’s hiring as a signal that the show would drastically change.

Bilton was appointed amid other personnel changes at the news magazine. Alfonsi said last month that the network had declined to renew her “60 Minutes” contract. Days later, she and Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, were fired.

Simon, the show’s executive producer who had been at “60 Minutes” for more than three decades, and Draggan Mihailovich, the show’s executive editor, were also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer.

Anderson Cooper voluntarily left the show after nearly 20 years as a correspondent at the end of the season in May.

Pelley Clashes With CBS Management

At an explosive staff meeting days after Bilton was named to his new role, Pelley told him that he had “slender qualifications for this job” and accused Weiss of “murdering ‘60 Minutes.’”

At the meeting, which Weiss did not attend, Pelley said that she had been “brought in to kill” the program and that “she’s been doing exactly that.”

The next day, CBS News fired Pelley. In a letter to Pelley, which was obtained by the Times, Bilton expressed his frustration with the correspondent’s remarks. “You hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” he wrote.

Pelley assailed the new leadership of CBS News in a statement to the Times, writing that “incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc at the network.”

Weiss said during a newsroom meeting that the network had fired Pelley because a “foundation” of trust had been broken.

“I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect,” she said.

Bilton Moves to Allay Staff Concerns

After the public tumult of Pelley’s firing, Bilton moved to reassure his employees by pledging that “60 Minutes” would maintain its independence.

The program “will never be instructed by the ownership” of CBS News on its reporting, Bilton wrote in a memo to the show’s staff.

He also vowed not to drastically change the basic format and inner workings of the show, in an effort to address concerns that he might seek to overhaul the program.

“Sunday night works,” he wrote. “It’s the best hour of television journalism anywhere.”

The next day, the remaining three on-air correspondents said they would continue at “60 Minutes.”

The correspondents, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, said in an email to employees Friday that they had decided to stay after a period of frustration and grief.

In an interview, Stahl said their decision to stay would be reversed if Bilton did not live up to his promises. “We’re more or less taking his word for it,” she said.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Sophia June/Lucia Vazquez
c. 2026 The New York Times Company

[hubspot type=form portal=8576119 id=f5235c74-daca-46b2-b841-0fec24b5a509]