Deadline reported and confirmed that former veteran CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) after his firing from 60 Minutes. Pelley was ousted from his position following an alleged confrontation with the program’s incoming executive producer Nick Bilton and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Previously, it was alleged that Pelley had made accusatory comments about Weiss and her intentions with the network at staff meeting to introduce Bilton as the new EP of 60 Minutes following the departure of former EP Tanya Simon. After Pelley’s comments that she (Weiss) was “murdering 60 Minutes” and looking to “kill” the show alongside disparagement of Bilton’s qualifications to act as EP, Pelley was publicly dismissed from CBS News – he later released a full statement following his departure which reinforced accusations towards the network of political bias and interference in their work made by prior departed longtime members of 60 Minutes.
Per Deadline, CAA also represents Pelley’s former colleagues Lesley Stahl, Cecilia Vega, Tanya Simon, and Bill Owens; with the latter three having been forced out of the program within the last year. Although many current and former correspondents from 60 Minutes are represented by UTA, CAA also represents former news anchor Anderson Cooper, who had stepped away from a longtime tenure on 60 Minutes after the finale of the show’s most recent season.
Via The New York Times and Deadline, Pelley’s first interview since his firing saw him stating that the new leadership doesn’t “know what they’re doing.”
Continuing, from Deadline:
“We have people who’ve been installed in these jobs through no fault of their own have no experience in television. They don’t know what they’re doing. And there’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes before. So that is my hope: a return to sanity. We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire.”