Scott Pelley thanks fans after CBS fires him from 60 Minutes

Scott Pelley thanked viewers for standing by him after CBS News abruptly fired him from 60 Minutes, ending a run that stretched across 37 years at the network and its flagship newsmagazine. In a post on Instagram, Pelley told fans, “To all of you who have been so kind, you are the wind in my sails.”

The dismissal landed amid a widening clash over who controls one of television news’s most influential brands. CBS said it fired Pelley after a tense and confrontational exchange with the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, and said Bilton’s termination letter described a “performative display of hostility” and said Pelley was not interested in collaboration. Pelley, in his own statement, said “60 Minutes lost its DNA” and accused new management of trying to push “falsehoods and bias” into a politically sensitive story.

The firing followed a broader shakeup at 60 Minutes that began when CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss replaced longtime executive producer Tanya Simon with Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and documentarian who had never run a TV news show. CBS also cut ties with correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi in the same round of changes, rattling a program long associated with investigative rigor and institutional continuity.

Even as the turmoil spread, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said they would stay for the show’s 59th season. The three correspondents said they did not want to see 60 Minutes die, but made clear that their decision to remain was not an endorsement of the current leadership. Their announcement underscored how much of the program’s identity still rests on veteran correspondents who have spent years building trust with viewers.

Outside the newsroom, the backlash sharpened. WGA East and SAG-AFTRA condemned the firings as a threat to editorial independence, arguing that the changes amounted to an attack on CBS News journalism. The dispute is unfolding as Paramount-Skydance owner David Ellison seeks regulatory approval for a separate merger involving Warner Bros. Discovery, while CBS News veterans have voiced concern about the company’s direction after earlier cuts, including the shutdown of CBS News Radio. For a broadcast created by Don Hewitt and long treated as a benchmark for television journalism, the fight over Pelley has become a test of whether legacy news can still withstand management pressure and keep the audience’s trust.