In her most significant move yet since taking overCBS Newslast year, the network’s editor in chief Bari Weiss launched a major overhaul of its flagship newsmagazine60 Minutes, installing veteran features journalist Nick Bilton as the new executive producer of the venerable newsweekly, while parting ways with a handful of top producers and correspondents.
The broadcaster made a series of moves to shake-up the program, terminating exec producer Tanya Simon as well as correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi after the Memorial Day holiday. Other senior producers were also let go.
Free Pressfounder Weiss, who joined CBS last October, had long telegraphed that major changes were afoot in an effort to remake60 Minutesunder a new ownership regime led by Paramount CEO David Ellison.The Hollywood Reporterreported back in Februarythat Weiss was looking to overhaul the program, which is the most-watched news show in America with north of 6 million viewers every week, and often more than 10 million viewers during the NFL season, when it benefits from that lead-in.
“Nick is one of the most entrepreneurial journalists of our time and the perfect leader for one of the most entrepreneurial news brands of all time,” stated Weiss on Thursday. “We have huge ambition for60 Minutesto reach new heights through deep, revelatory journalism that breaks news, exposes wrongdoing, widens public understanding and forces accountability from every institution and every center of power. Nick shares this mission and will bring his deep investigative experience and understanding of the technological moment we’re in to60 Minutesso that its important journalism comes to life for all audiences.”
Simon, a 25-year veteran of CBS News and the venerable newsmagazine, sent a note to60 Minutesstaff Thursday, which was obtained byTHR, acknowledging that her “time as Executive Producer of60 Minutesand at CBS News is coming to an end.”
“While leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter – I want to be unequivocally clear about one thing: it has been an immense privilege to lead this broadcast, and I could not be prouder of what we have built, fought for, and delivered together over the last year,” she added. “60 Minutes has always been more than just a broadcast: it is an institution built on independence, grit, and rigorous search for the truth. That is work we did together – and with ratings up 9% over last year no less. You should all be proud.”
The hiring of Bilton, a TV news outsider, was a shock to many inside CBS.
Bilton was most recently a special correspondent atVanity Fair, known for his investigative print features on tech as well as for books includingHatching Twitterand American Kingpin. He also wrote and directed the HBO docFake Famousand produced the premium cabler’s Theranos docThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. He is alsowriting a feature scriptfor a Martin Scorsese that would star Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt, though it is not clear what the status of that project is.
In a memo to staffers, Bilton wrote of leading60 Minutes: “I’m here to lead this show, not preserve it under glass. That means honoring what works and being honest about what doesn’t.”
Weiss is said to be seeking new blood to add to the correspondent ranks, though it is not clear what changes Bilton would make to the show’s format itself, which many credit as being critical to its ratings success. Bilton told staff that he plans to meet with them and reconvene this summer to talk about what comes next.
Source: Drudge Report
