CBS News Hires Nick Bilton to Run ‘60 Minutes’ in Major Overhaul

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In her most significant move yet since taking over CBS News last year, the network’s editor in chief Bari Weiss launched a major overhaul of its flagship newsmagazine 60 Minutes, installing veteran features journalist Nick Bilton as the new executive producer of the venerable newsweekly, while parting ways with a handful of top producers and correspondents.

The broadcaster made a series of moves to shake-up the program, terminating exec producer Tanya Simon as well as correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi after the Memorial Day holiday. Other senior producers were also let go.

Free Press founder Weiss, who joined CBS last October, had long telegraphed that major changes were afoot in an effort to remake 60 Minutes under a new ownership regime led by Paramount CEO David Ellison. The Hollywood Reporter reported back in February that Weiss was looking to overhaul the program, which is the most watched news show in America.

“Nick is one of the most entrepreneurial journalists of our time and the perfect leader for one of the most entrepreneurial news brands of all time,” stated Weiss on Thursday. “We have huge ambition for 60 Minutes to reach new heights through deep, revelatory journalism that breaks news, exposes wrongdoing, widens public understanding and forces accountability from every institution and every center of power. Nick shares this mission and will bring his deep investigative experience and understanding of the technological moment we’re in to 60 Minutes so that its important journalism comes to life for all audiences.” 

Simon, a 25-year veteran of CBS News and the venerable newsmagazine, sent a note to 60 Minutes staff Thursday, which was obtained by THR, acknowledging that her “time as Executive Producer of 60 Minutes and at CBS News is coming to an end.

“While leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter – I want to be unequivocally clear about one thing: it has been an immense privilege to lead this broadcast, and I could not be prouder of what we have built, fought for, and delivered together over the last year,” she added. “60 Minutes has always been more than just a broadcast: it is an institution built on independence, grit, and rigorous search for the truth. That is work we did together – and with ratings up 9% over last year no less. You should all be proud.”

The hiring of Bilton, a TV news outsider, was a shock to many inside CBS.

Bilton was most recently a special correspondent at Vanity Fair, known for his investigative print features on tech as well as for books including Hatching Twitter and American Kingpin. He also wrote and directed the HBO doc Fake Famous and produced the premium cabler’s Theranos doc The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. He is also writing a feature script for a Martin Scorsese that would star Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt, though it is not clear what the status of that project is.

In a memo to staffers, Bilton wrote of leading 60 Minutes: “I’m here to lead this show, not preserve it under glass. That means honoring what works and being honest about what doesn’t.”

Weiss is said to be seeking new blood to add to the correspondent ranks, though it is not clear what changes Bilton would make to the show’s format itself, which many credit as being critical to its ratings success. Bilton told staff that he plans to meet with them and reconvene this summer to talk about what comes next.

However he made it clear that will include attempting to take the 60 Minutes brand and bring it to new platforms, rather than be limited to its one hour per week.

“Hiring Nick represents a deliberate vision for 60 Minutes to go beyond an hour on Sunday evenings to become a 360-degree product that reaches audiences wherever they consume information,” CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said. “Our ambition is to do hard-hitting journalism that respects our existing audience, brings in new audiences and enables viewers to proactively devote their attention to our work across every platform and medium.”

But the decision to overhaul the network’s top show, especially with its evening newscast and morning show still floundering, is a major risk to take.

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