More staff shakeups were afoot at '60 Minutes' this week as CBS News head Bari Weiss continued to make her mark on the network, less than a year into her controversial tenure as the network's editor-in-chief.
Leadership Change at '60 Minutes'
On Thursday, Weiss announced that '60 Minutes' executive producer Tanya Simon, who took over the role in July, would be replaced by tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton. Simon, the daughter of the late '60 Minutes' correspondent and CBS News foreign reporter Bob Simon, had been with the network for three decades. Unlike the program's four previous executive producers, Bilton has never worked for CBS News.
In a memo sent to '60 Minutes' staff on Thursday, Bilton said he hopes to bring a commitment to fairness and preserve the public's trust in the program. 'I'm here to lead this show, not preserve it under glass,' the memo reads. 'That means honoring what works and being honest about what doesn't. I have a notebook full of ideas. Some are about the show itself. Some are about the next generation of correspondents.'
Weiss's Vision and Controversy
Weiss referred to Bilton as 'one of the most entrepreneurial and ambitious journalists working today' in a post on X. The Los Angeles Times reported that Weiss took issue with Tanya Simon not giving her a heads-up about CNN anchor and longtime '60 Minutes' correspondent Anderson Cooper's fiery farewell, in which he expressed the importance of the program's independence.
'I hope '60 Minutes' remains '60 Minutes',' Cooper said in his final episode. 'There's very few things that have been around for as long as '60 Minutes' has, and maintain the quality that it has. ... I think the independence of '60 Minutes' has been critical. The trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of '60 Minutes.''
Additional Departures and Concerns
CBS News also declined to renew its contract with '60 Minutes' correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, she said Wednesday. The network's decision sent a 'chilling message to the entire newsroom,' Alfonsi told The New York Times. 'There's a feeling that the wall has come down between editorial independence and corporate interests,' she told the newspaper. 'The concern is we're going to end up with a broadcast that looks like '60 Minutes' but doesn't have the courage or the character to produce '60 Minutes' journalism that actually matters.'
Last month, Alfonsi raised concerns about CBS's future after Weiss, in December, abruptly pulled her segment detailing the experience of Venezuelan immigrants that the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Originally set to air on Dec. 21, 2025, the segment was later released on Jan. 21.
'60 Minutes' executive producer Draggan Mihailovich and correspondent Cecilia Vega were also fired from the program, sources told The Los Angeles Times and Variety on Thursday. The network did not respond to HuffPost when asked to confirm those departures.
Weiss's Background and Shift at CBS
Weiss, a former New York Times columnist now known for railing against 'wokes' and 'cancel culture,' joined CBS News shortly after its parent company, Paramount, was acquired by Skydance in a Trump administration-approved merger last summer. Ahead of the merger, Skydance CEO David Ellison promised the Trump administration he would eliminate any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at CBS News and hire an ombudsman to investigate any alleged bias.
FCC Chairman and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr, upon approving the merger, said he'd received confirmation from Ellison that he would 'make significant changes' at CBS News, including by promoting a 'diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.'
Weiss's hiring last fall solidified what many speculated would be a rightward shift at CBS News, and critics have observed more MAGA-friendly coverage, including a softball interview with Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk in December. In July 2025, Paramount also agreed to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit in which he accused CBS News, without evidence, of editing an episode of '60 Minutes' to flatter then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
