CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has brought in someone who has never worked in broadcast news to lead the network’s most storied program, 60 Minutes.
Nick Bilton, a former tech columnist, will replace Tanya Simon, a producer at the program for nearly 30 years, The New York Times reported.
Placing Bilton, 49, in the role is one of Weiss’s boldest moves yet in her effort to make CBS News more Trump-friendly.
Bilton has no broadcast production experience, previously working as a technology columnist at the Times and later at Vanity Fair as a correspondent covering technology, politics, and culture.
He has produced two HBO documentaries, Fake Famous, a film about aspiring social media influencers, and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, about conwoman Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
In a note to 60 Minutes staff, Bilton said “the world we are reporting on, and the world we are reporting to, where people consume their news, has moved. And if we don’t move with it, in the ways that matter, we won’t be here for the next sixty years. I want to do everything humanly possible to ensure that we are.
“How? I’ve spent most of my career writing about exactly this kind of moment,” he wrote.
“Between AI rewriting how information is made and everyone with a phone calling themselves a media company, this is the most precarious moment for journalism (and society) I have ever seen,” his note to staff continued.
Weiss’ handling of 60 Minutes has faced severe pushback from longtime producers, many of whom have quit or been forced out. The Free Press founder, who also had no experience in TV news before assuming her role, has been publicly called out by producers for meddling with their production.
Her last-minute decision to shelve a 60 Minutes segment on the conditions at CECOT, the notorious El Salvadoran mega-prison where the Trump administration has been sending deportees, made staff particularly irate.
Of Bilton’s hire, Weiss, in a note to staff, said the journalist “embodies the energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show. We cannot imagine a better fit.”
Simon, whom Bilton is replacing, had been at 60 Minutes since 1999. She was the program’s fourth executive producer and first woman to hold the role.
“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 said in a statement confirming her departure.
In addition to Simon, two other high-profile women at 60 Minutes were pushed out Thursday: correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who clashed with Weiss over the shelved CECOT segment, and correspondent Cecilia Vega.
“Following an intense editorial dispute over our CECOT story, repeated attempts by my representation to establish a path forward were met with absolute silence from network executives,” Alfonsi said in a statement on her departure. “The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over.”
Executive editor Draggan Mihailovich was also pushed out of his role at the program on Thursday, Puck reported.
CNN star and former longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper left the program on his own accord earlier this year.
During his final appearance, he said, “I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes. There’s very few things that have been around for as long as 60 Minutes has and maintained the quality that it has.”
Still, some men appear to be staying. Variety reported veteran correspondents Scott Pelley and Bill Whitaker have time remaining on their contracts.
