Paramount CEO David Ellison recently vowed to “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl that the newsmagazine would have “editorial independence,” according to three people familiar with the matter, the latest sign the media conglomerate is trying to tamp down tensions around the venerable program in the wake of a recent ouster of its top producers and half its on-air staff.
Stahl told “60 Minutes” staffers on Monday that David Ellison had reached out to her and vowed the program woudl retain its independence, according to the two people. He also apologized for some of the recent tumult around the show, these people confirmed.
The Guardian and The New York Times previously reported details about the conversation between Ellison and Stahl. Paramount declined to make executives available for comment.
CBS News in late May ousted much of the senior management of “60 Minutes,” a flagship CBS property and one of journalism’s crown jewels. Nearly two weeks ago, CBS News fired Tanya Simon, the executive producer of “60 Minutes”; Draggan Mihailovich, the show’s executive editor; correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega; and senior producers Guy Campanile and Matthew Polevoy. Within days, Scott Pelley was also dispatched, following verbal sparring with the show’s new leader, Nick Bilton. The program, the most-watched news show in the U.S., is left with just three correspondents and a need to get stories ready to go for fall.
Ellison’s words may help soothe tensions at the program, which has been roiled in recent days and still faces a difficult summer without more full-time correspondents. Under Bari Weiss, the CBS News, editor in chief, the company is believed to want to wring more content out of “60 Minutes” that can be used in digital and social media, and also deliver more timely news segments that rely on “gets” of people in the middle of important, breaking stories. Of course “60 Minutes” was already doing much of this stuff in recent years.
Ellison has said promising things to CBS News staffers in the recent past, only to undermine his words. In September, the company named Kenneth Weinstein, the former CEO of the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, to serve as the ombudsman of CBS News. His job to is to probe allegations of bias and error, among other things. Hiring Weinstein dashed much of the rapport Ellison had made with CBS News staffers when he first acquired the Paramount assets. According to people familiar with the matter, Ellison had told CBS News employees how much he admired the work they did in an early meeting after the deal had closed.
Calming affairs at CBS News could be of, well, paramount importance to the media company. Midterm elections, coming later in 2026, typically bring bigger audiences and the advertising dollars that follow them to news programs. Weiss presides over a group of stalwart programs – “60 Minutes,” “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “CBS Mornings,” “48 Hours” and “Face The Nation — that generated $362 million in 2025, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending.
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Bilton will have to work hard to spark morale among current “60” staff. For months, two people familiar with CBS News say, producers have “self-censored” themselves, avoiding ideas and topics they believe would spur pushback from Weiss or corporate. Producers have been cowed internally after the show has been undermined by a media company that has consistently refused to stand up for it in public.
Previous management at Paramount turned the program into a bargaining chip with the Trump administration, which leveraged a $16 million settlement to end what has been viewed in many legal circles as a flimsy lawsuit tied to a pre-Election Day interview between Whitaker, and former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount made the deal as it sought to complete its sale to Skydance, the network’s current owner. Paramount’s capitulation spurred the exits of two senior CBS News executives — Bill Owens, the former “60 Minutes” executive producer, and Wendy McMahon, the former CEO of CBS’ news, stations and syndication businesses.
In late 2025, Weiss made matters worse by inserting herself late in the process around a story about migrants being shipped by the U.S. to harsh imprisonment in El Salvador. Weiss ordered the work held after it had already been promoted in public circles, calling for Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the segment, to get comment from Trump officials after she had already made efforts to do so. The move drew new inquiry because it had the appearance of trying to placate the Trump administration over a story officials might not find favorable. The segment appeared during a January, 2026, telecast and Weiss acknowledged she drew unwanted attention because she was unfamiliar with some of the news outlet’s ways of working.
From Variety US