'60 Minutes' Anchors Commit
Remaining '60 Minutes' Correspondents Commit to Stay Amid CBS News Leadership Shakeup
Three of the last surviving correspondents at "60 Minutes" — Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim, and Bill Whitaker — say they are staying with the show. They released a joint memo on June 5 making clear they don't want to see the 58-year-old program die, Newsday reported. Their decision came after a wave of firings left the show down four of its seven full-time correspondents.
The three called their choice to stay "not an endorsement" of new leadership, Daily Gazette reported. The show is now being run by new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and her hand-picked Executive Producer, Nick Bilton — a tech journalist with no TV news experience.
'Black Thursday' Gutted the Show in One Day
On May 28, Bari Weiss fired four top people at once. Executive Producer Tanya Simon and Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich were let go. So were two on-air correspondents: Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Weiss then installed Nick Bilton as the new Executive Producer — the first outside hire for that role in the show's history, KARE 11 reported.
The firings came on top of earlier losses. Anderson Cooper had already left at the end of the season. That brought the total departures to four correspondents. Then, on June 2, veteran anchor Scott Pelley was fired via email after he confronted Weiss and Bilton at a staff meeting, calling their actions "murder" of the show, First Coast News reported.
Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim Choose to Stay and Fight
The three remaining correspondents were blunt. Their memo said they were angry and felt their fired colleagues had been "treated so shabbily," Seattle PI reported. But they chose to stay anyway. Stahl has been with the show since 1991. Whitaker joined in 2014. Wertheim came on in 2017.
Their decision to stay matters for the show's survival. Without them, CBS would have had almost no experienced on-air talent for Season 59. Bilton now has a fighting chance to get the show back on air, WNEP reported. But the memo made clear the three are not happy with the direction things are heading.
Weiss and the Merger Behind the Shakeup
The overhaul traces back to an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media that closed in August 2025. David Ellison took control of CBS's parent company. Weiss, the former New York Times opinion editor and founder of The Free Press, was brought in as CBS News Editor-in-Chief with a "digital-first" mandate, WZZM 13 reported.
Tensions had been building for months. Weiss pulled a nearly finished segment on an El Salvador prison just three hours before airtime in December 2025, saying it needed more "balance." That move was widely seen inside the newsroom as political interference. Paramount had also paid a $16 million settlement to Donald Trump over a Kamala Harris interview edit, Las Vegas Sun reported.
A Legendary Brand Now Hanging by a Thread
"60 Minutes" has been the number one news program for 52 straight seasons. It draws about 9.1 million viewers a week — up 9% over the last year. Losing four of seven correspondents before Season 59 puts that record at serious risk, NH Register reported.
Unions are pushing back hard. The Writers Guild East called the changes a sign of "profound contempt for the journalism profession." Weiss, for her part, says she wants a newsroom "built on trust and mutual respect." For now, three correspondents are holding the line — angry, but still there, WSBTV reported.
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