“60 Minutes” is on the clock — in more ways than its new leader might realize.
When Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor in chief, named Nick Bilton last week to lead the venerable newsmagazine into its 59th season, she did so at a critical moment. Bilton, a technology reporter who made a move into screenwriting and documentary filmmaking and production, must learn the ins and outs of the program on the fly, without any sustained experience in managing a large team of journalists or a broadcast-TV property, even as the show is under pressure to deliver enough of its in-depth reporting for segments that will start to air in September.
“The show is on the air one day, one night, one hour a week, and to me there is an incredible opportunity to take the show and do a lot of things with it,” Bilton told Variety during an interview last week.
He has called for increased content production at a time when a lot of people who might have expertise on how to do just that are, suddenly, gone. The 58th season of “60 Minutes” wrapped with seven correspondents. Now, there are only four. Anderson Cooper announced in February he would leave the show after nearly 20 years spent as a contributor. Last week, CBS News fired correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Also ousted: Draggan Mihailovich, the show’s executive editor, known for having an almost cinematic vision for stories, according to people familiarity with the series, and producers Guy Campanile and Matthew Poelvoy. The most notable exit may be that of Tanya Simon, who had just taken the reins of “60 Minutes” as executive producer last year — the first woman in the history of TV to do so.
Bilton declined to discuss staffing plans, but he’s already almost at half force in terms of on-screen talent. It remains unclear what steps the show’s three veterans — Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl and Bill Whitaker — might take. There’s been no announcement of their status. People familiar with the show suggest all three want “60” to survive, and if their presence would help, are open to considering it. But they are torn by the recent moves at the show, which many insiders view as “inhumane” and “not strategic,” according to one of person familiar with CBS News. All three correspondents declined last week to respond to queries asking for their thoughts on the direction of the program. Jon Wertheim, a correspondent known for his facility with profile and features, is also on the “60 Minutes” roster, and could not be reached for immediate comment Monday.
Pelley unloaded a verbal barrage on Bilton at a meeting of “60 Minutes” staff on Monday, alleging that the new executive editor lacked credentials to lead the show, as did Weiss, who Pelley accused of “murdering” the program. CBS News declined to comment on Pelley’s remarks. CBS News managers had reached out to Pelley and the other correspondents in recent days, according to a person familiar with the matter.
While the new executive producer’s experience is under scrutiny, he has launched his own production company and was actively involved in screenwriting and documentaries. Another former top broadcast-news executive, Noah Oppenheim, returned to NBC News after a stint in Hollywood, took the reins of its “Today” morning franchise and was eventually named president of NBC News. He has since returned to screenwriting and production.
Bilton will have to work hard to spark morale among current “60” staff. For months, two people familiar with CBS News say, producers have “self-censored” themselves, avoiding ideas and topics they believe would spur pushback from Weiss or corporate. Producers have been cowed internally after the show has been undermined by a media company that has consistently refused to stand up for it in public.
“In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions,” said Vega in a statement last week after her dismissal from the program became known. “Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Previous management at Paramount turned the program into a bargaining chip with the Trump administration, which leveraged a $16 million settlement to end what has been viewed in many legal circles as a flimsy lawsuit tied to a pre-Election Day interview between Whitaker, and former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount made the deal as it sought to complete its sale to Skydance, the network’s current owner. Paramount’s capitulation spurred the exits of two senior CBS News executives — Bill Owens, the former “60 Minutes” executive producer, and Wendy McMahon, the former CEO of CBS’ news, stations and syndication businesses.
In late 2025, Weiss made matters worse by inserting herself late in the process around a story about migrants being shipped by the U.S. to harsh imprisonment in El Salvador. Weiss ordered the work held after it had already been promoted in public circles, calling for Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the segment, to get comment from Trump officials after she had already made efforts to do so. The move drew new inquiry because it had the appearance of trying to placate the Trump administration over a story officials might not find favorable. The segment appeared during a January, 2026, telecast and Weiss acknowledged she drew unwanted attention because she was unfamiliar with some of the news outlet’s ways of working.
In an era when more people are getting their news from social media and digital influencers, “60 Minutes” remains a marvel. During some weeks, as many as 10 million people watch the program, which gets a boost from its place on the Sunday-evening lineup directly after CBS’ afternoon telecasts of NFL games. Overall viewership for the season was up 9%, according to data from Nielsen.
Weiss is betting Bilton can bring new viewers to the program without alienating its current crop of die-hards. But people familiar with the show who have read the duo’s recent remarks in interviews with media outlets worry these executives believe they can do this all with a proverbial and simple flick of a switch, and don’t realize the depth of reportage and care that goes into getting a single “60” story ready for TV. Preparing a segment includes exhaustive research and exacting editing and feedback, according to three people familiar with the program. In recent months, the scrutiny has expanded, with a new layer of fact-checking and standards installed by corporate.
Bilton has been set at the top of a property that costs millions of dollars every year. The two people familiar with the business of CBS News suggest that “60 Minutes” correspondents can make as much as $5 million each year — with less-seasoned on air personnel earning less, while the executive producer earns around $2.5 million and the executive editor around $1 million. Each correspondent typically has a team of four or more senior producers, each of whom can command between $200,000 and $300,000 per year. Each senior producer works with a number of associate producer who might earn as much a $150,000. These people estimate that every story “60 Minutes” produces requires around $75,000 in costs tied to travel, research, photography and more.
CBS News declined to comment on the figures.
The newsmagazine generated between $67 million and $69 million in advertising revenue in both 2024 and 2025 according to data from iSpot, and commanded the 11th biggest haul of ad dollars of any show on CBS last year. “60 Minutes” is a dependable perch for one of the network’s top sponsor categories –- healthcare and pharmaceuticals — and counts drugs such as Rinvoq, Clairtin, Skyrizi, and Vabismo as among its biggest advertisers in 2026.
Perhaps the money is the point. With ad dollars moving away from linear TV to digital media, “60 Minutes” incurs significant costs. In recent weeks, viewers have seen other anchors from CBS News, including Washington correspondent Major Garrett, get top “60” assignments. There is an internal sense that more of the CBS News rank and file could be called upon to contribute to the newsmagazine, just as a local correspondent, Jennifer Mayerle from CBS’ WCCO in Minneapolis, was able to contribute a segment to “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2024. Under Weiss, “60 Minutes” has also worked to crash more timely reports with correspondents trying to lasso a big newsmaker “get” tied to one of the week’s biggest stories. The show did this under former executive producer Owens as well — and got called out for reporting too much on President Trump and his policies.
The only insulation “60 Minutes” has is the sports broadcast that precedes it in the fall and winter. Rivals have tried for years to create a counterpart to “60,” and have failed because they lack a lead-in program equal in magnitude to the NFL. The slot after an NFL game represents “a singular platform” for “60 Minutes,” says one of the people familiar with the CBS News’ business dynamics.
NBC, which in past years launched newsmagazines such as “Rock Center,” “On Assignment” and “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly,” no longer has space on Sundays to devote to news, thanks to rights deals it has struck with the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball. NBC News, ABC News and MS NOW are not considering any type of newsmagazine launch at present, according to people familiar with those networks. CNN, for its part, does offer a similar type of show on Sundays. The Warner Bros. Discovery outlet launched “The Whole Story,” which devotes an hour to an in-depth exploration of a single topic each week, in 2023.
There is a contingent of CBS News staffers who think “60 Minutes” needs to change. Some feel the program has become too genteel and needs more of the on-screen dramatics of former correspondent Mike Wallace. Others found schadenfreude upon hearing in February that the newsmagazine would be plucked from its separate headquarters on West 57th Street and plugged alongside the rest of the news division’s editors, producers and reporters at an office across the avenue. When it comes to expansion of the program, past attempts have failed to stick around as long as the flagship. Efforts to expand “60 Minutes” to a second hour on Wednesdays, a sports-themed counterpart for Showtime or a digital spin off with shorter stories for streaming have not proven to have long lives.
Still, there are just as many who believe the “60” overhaul is motivated by a Paramount management team that lacks the spine to tangle with politicians and the powerful. Fearless, independent reporting has always been the defining standard at ’60 Minutes,’” Alfonsi said in a statement last week. “CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it.”
“If this continues,” she added, “the result will be a broadcast that looks like ’60 Minutes’ but lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters.”
If Bilton and Weiss can reinvigorate the remaining staff, broaden the “60 Minutes” portfolio and maintain the quality and ratings of the original TV program, they will have achieved quite a feat. Weiss is still trying to build a track record. Her overhaul of “CBS Evening News” has resulted in a choppy new era for the signature evening news program. Viewership for “CBS Mornings” has diminished and a series of hour-long newsmaker conversations called “Things That Matter” has proved too sporadic to gain true momentum.
Meanwhile, the “60 Minutes” stopwatch keeps ticking.