WASHINGTON — A day after correspondent Scott Pelley said CBS News head Bari Weiss was “murdering” 60 Minutes and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job, he has been fired, reports say.
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“Yesterday’s performative display of hostility — enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation — demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress,” Nick Bilton wrote in a letter addressed to Pelley reviewed by Variety, CNN and The Associated Press.
“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately.”
Pelley made his accusations in an introductory meeting Monday between the newsmagazine’s staff and Bilton, the new executive producer named by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website, which said it had heard a recording of the meeting. Weiss herself was not present, according to the report. Status specializes in media news and analysis.
Status reported that Pelley, the longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent, began grilling Bilton at the 10 a.m. meeting about the firings last week of Bilton’s predecessor, Tanya Simon, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Status also reported that Pelley told Bilton, a former technology journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast news experience, that his qualifications for the position were “slender.”
Pelley also charged, according to Status, that Weiss herself had “no qualifications for her job” and said the changes she had made to “CBS Evening News,” which Pelley once anchored, “have been catastrophic.”
It added that Bilton insisted that “Bari loves this institution” and “she loves ’60 Minutes'” — to which Pelley countered, “She’s murdering ‘60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and she’s doing exactly that.”
Pelley said in a statement that “60 Minutes” has lost its DNA under new management. He accused them of asking him to “inject falsehoods and bias” into his work, without sharing specific details.
“Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration,” he said in the statement.
Argument comes after memo touting ‘new approach’
Reports about the contentious meeting came four days after Weiss, who has become a polarizing figure in the media world since taking the reins at CBS last October, told staff in a memo that it was time for a “new approach” at the top-rated newsmagazine.
In the memo, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said their goal was “building a show that thrives in the 21st century.”
“That requires a new approach,” they wrote, defining that approach as “expanding ‘60 Minutes’ beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined ‘60 Minutes’ at its best.”
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Bilton, they said, “embodies the energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show. We cannot imagine a better fit.”
Status noted that Pelley was applauded multiple times by other staffers during the meeting. It said Pelley focused on the firings last week, calling them cruel.
Bilton reportedly replied that he was not intimidated. “I have been a journalist for 25 years, Scott,” Status quoted him as saying. “I have sat and talked with incredibly powerful people like you have. None of it intimidates me, OK? So you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people.”
’60 Minutes’ shakeup
Changes have rocked the “60 Minutes” show since Weiss became CBS’s new head in October, 2025.
In February, longtime correspondent Anderson Cooper announced he was leaving the show. Just last week, CBS stopped working with multiple managers and correspondents, according to multiple outlets.
The show’s former executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega no longer work on the show, according to Variety.
Alfonsi’s “60 Minutes” report on deportees who had been sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison was pulled before premiering in December 2025, and aired a month later, after controversy from the decision. Vega’s report from Minneapolis about ICE enforcement efforts and the protests to its tactics aired the same night Alfonsi’s CECOT report was supposed to in December.
Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim are the only correspondents left on the show.
The changes also come after President Donald Trump sued “60 Minutes” for how it handled an interview with his 2024 election opponent, Kamala Harris. CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, settled with Trump out of court for an estimated $16 million.
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