When CBS’s venerable newsmagazine "60 Minutes" launched its 59th season on Sunday night, it made no direct mention of the turmoil and staff departures unfolding behind the scenes in recent months.
Hosts held off until the broadcast's end to acknowledge that anything different was happening.
While addressing claims of a narrow window to make artificial intelligence safe for humanity, an announcer transitioned to journalism and "60 Minutes": "For almost 60 years it has meant the same thing — journalism you can trust. Where we’re headed we’re going to need it," he stated at the end.
He also noted that viewers would see "new faces" on the program this season.
CBS News leader Bari Weiss previously stated the show would take a "new approach." That strategy included firing the top producer and two correspondents, among others, and installing a new chief with no TV broadcast experience. Longtime figure Scott Pelley was absent after being fired following a tense clash with executives earlier this year.
Two other correspondents were ousted, while Anderson Cooper chose to depart of his own accord.
Pelley has made troubling allegations against network management. "New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story," the correspondent and former evening news anchor contended in June. CBS denied the claim.
Turmoil has surrounded "60 Minutes" for over a year, after President Donald Trump sued the broadcast over its editing of a 2024 interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. It became part of a wider upheaval across CBS News after parent company Paramount appointed Weiss editor-in-chief late last year, following David Ellison’s arrival as corporate leader.
Weiss named Nick Bilton, a former technology columnist and documentarian, as executive producer earlier this year, replacing Tanya Simon, a 30-year show veteran who had served in the top role for about a year.
Also ousted were correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose reporting on Trump administration deportees in a Salvadoran prison was abruptly pulled by Weiss before airing a month later.
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