CBS News fires 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley after he confronts new executive producer

A confrontation in the newsroom

CBS News fired Scott Pelley, a 60 Minutes correspondent and former anchor of the CBS Evening News, on Tuesday evening. The termination followed a tense staff meeting on Monday in which Pelley confronted Nick Bilton, the newly appointed executive producer of the newsmagazine. According to multiple reports, Pelley accused Bilton and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of "murdering" the show and questioned Bilton's qualifications to lead the broadcast. Pelley had been with the network since 1989.

Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.

Bilton's termination letter, obtained by several outlets, stated that Pelley was being fired "for cause effective immediately." The letter cited Pelley's "antipathy to the future of the show" and described the Monday meeting as a "performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation." Bilton noted that he had invited Pelley to dinner upon taking the role and had attempted to find common ground in a follow-up conversation on Tuesday, but that Pelley "chose ambush instead."

Pelley's response

Hours after his dismissal, Pelley issued a scathing statement. He said the "leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable" and that "the principles I hold dear are gone." Pelley revealed that new management had instructed him to "inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story" and claimed that "incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc." He accused the network's ownership of "casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration."

The waste is heartbreaking.

Speaking to the New York Times, Pelley pushed back against Bilton's characterization of him as resistant to the show's future. "I have been in combat in Afghanistan," he said. "I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast."

A newsroom in upheaval

Pelley's firing is the latest in a series of departures from 60 Minutes. Last week, Weiss dismissed executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Alfonsi had clashed with Weiss over the delayed airing of a report about the treatment of prisoners in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador housing deported Venezuelan migrants, drawing accusations that Weiss interfered with the story to appease the Trump administration. Bill Owens, the program's former executive producer, resigned in April 2025 citing concerns about journalistic independence. Anderson Cooper also departed the program this year.

Bilton, a print reporter and documentary filmmaker with no prior experience producing television news, was appointed to lead 60 Minutes last week. Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News by Paramount CEO David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison. Ellison is currently seeking federal approval for his $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.

A franchise under pressure

60 Minutes remains the most-watched news program in the United States. According to Pelley's statement, the show grew its audience by 9 percent this spring at the end of its 58th season. The program has repeatedly drawn the ire of President Trump. Axios reported that the management changes at CBS News have put staffers at other networks, including CNN, on edge. In a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO, Bilton wrote that he knew "how much Scott meant to many of you" but would not "relitigate" the Monday meeting, adding: "What I will commit to is this: I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama."