When Nick Bilton first met with Bari Weiss about the opportunity to take over 60 Minutes, the most-watched and highest-profile TV newsmagazine in America, the former Vanity Fair and New York Times journalist had already put his reporting days behind him in favor of screenwriting.
“I didn’t really have a desire to come back to journalism, quite frankly,” Bilton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I felt like the ability to tell stories on screen was the future of my next era of storytelling.”
But the opportunity nagged at him.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I like, I was working on all these screenplays, and all I could think about was 60 Minutes,” he added, noting that he came up with a “vision” for the news brand.
On May 28, Weiss made her move, announcing a major overhaul of the venerable newsmagazine. Out was the show’s executive producer Tanya Simon, and a few of her top deputies. Also shown the exit were correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
