CBS names Nick Bilton to lead 60 Minutes amid newsroom upheaval

CBS put a former technology columnist in charge of its most storied newsmagazine, a move that signaled not just a personnel change but a test of whether a legacy television brand can remake itself without breaking apart. Nick Bilton, a former New York Times writer, Vanity Fair special correspondent, bestselling author and documentary producer, became executive producer of 60 Minutes on May 28, replacing Tanya Simon after CBS said the program had finished its 58th season.

The network cast the hiring as a strategic reset. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski framed Bilton’s arrival as part of a push to turn 60 Minutes into a “360-degree product” that could reach audiences beyond Sunday nights. CBS also said Bilton was only the fifth executive producer in the show’s history, a reminder of how rare leadership change has been at a program that first premiered on September 24, 1968.

Bilton arrives with a digital and documentary résumé that looks nothing like the old broadcast playbook. He helped produce Netflix projects including Biggest Heist Ever, Unknown: Killer Robots and Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal. In an interview with CNBC, Bilton said CBS had hired him to pivot the show before ratings decline, and CBS said the program remained the nation’s top-rated news broadcast, with Nielsen ratings up 9% from a year earlier.

The appointment landed after two turbulent years inside CBS News. Bill Owens left as 60 Minutes executive producer in April 2025, saying he could no longer run the program as he always had. Paramount later settled Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the Kamala Harris interview for $16 million, and CBS News coverage said that settlement cleared the way for the FCC to approve the CBS-Paramount-Skydance merger. This season, an internal dispute over a planned segment on deportation to the El Salvador prison CECOT spilled into public view after Weiss pushed for more reporting and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi accused management of political interference. The segment later aired with minimal changes.

Bilton’s first week was more disruptive than any orientation memo could have anticipated. In a staff meeting on June 1, longtime correspondent Scott Pelley confronted him and accused Weiss of “murdering” the show. NBC News reported that Pelley also criticized the firings or departures of Tanya Simon, Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, Draggan Mihailovich and Matthew Polevoy, and one veteran described the mood inside the newsroom as “funereal.” CBS News fired Pelley on June 2. Bilton then told staff in a June 4 memo that it had been a “hell of a first week” and pledged journalistic independence, saying ownership would not direct stories.

Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim later said they would stay at 60 Minutes, even as they expressed anger over the recent purge. The fight now hangs over a program that has long defined prestige TV journalism and is suddenly being asked to prove that reinvention is possible without surrendering editorial authority.