According to Deadline, the newest flare-up in CBS’s 60 Minutes shake-up drama has seen pink slip delivered to tenured correspondent Scott Pelley after Pelley went on a tirade during incoming executive producer Nick Bilton’s first meeting with staff. During the meeting, Pelley disparaged the new leadership and their lack of qualifications for the job while claiming that newly crowned Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering 60 Minutes” and that she was specifically brought in to kill the show.
Pelley has been a mainstay with CBS News, racking up 37 years with the production. He even served as the chief White House correspondent at one point. Pelley seemed to channel his veteran status as he challenged Bilton’s leadership in his own meeting, lambasting him for little to no experience and an alleged agenda to destroy the show. Bilton would have none of that, terminating Pelley with cause, alongside a letter. In a retort, Bilton said, “Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear.” He also lamented that he was looking forward to working with the seasoned staff and learning from them, but that the show’s future must take precedence.
#BREAK: CBS NEWS has terminated Scott Pelley’s contract. pic.twitter.com/vbXyX8PBBv
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) June 3, 2026
Bilton was hired specifically to take the show into the future, his value not lying in traditional expertise within the industry, but in his knowledge of technology and the future of it. As cable struggles to stay relevant in the new age of streaming, shake-ups such as these continue to see less-than-likely leadership established. Also at play, which Pelley made clear he is unfavorable of, is President Trump’s ire of the legacy staff and their alleged biases after he waged a $20 million lawsuit against the show alleging deceitful editing in favor of his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris. Pelley accused his former employer of bending the knee to Trump, a common catch phrase used by those who have found themselves caught up in the president’s war on fake news and bias.
Pelley issued a full statement following his dismissal via Deadline:
There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.
Scott Pelley
With Bilton preempting the justification of his firing with cause after his “performative display of hostility”, and Deadline confirming Pelley has already had conversations with Hollywood litigator Brian Freedman, it could be assumed the performative display by Pelley was looking to draw termination for litigation. Freeman has helped many former industry employees secure huge payouts, from Don Lemon and Megyn Kelly, to recently fired 60 Minutes reporter Sharyn Alfonsi.