“60 Minutes” is on the clock — in more ways than its new leader might realize.
When Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor in chief, named Nick Bilton last week to lead the venerable newsmagazine into its 59th season, she did so at a critical moment. Bilton, a technology reporter who made a move into screenwriting and documentary filmmaking and production, must learn the ins and outs of the program on the fly, without any sustained experience in managing a large team of journalists or a broadcast-TV property, even as the show is under pressure to deliver enough of its in-depth reporting for segments that will start to air in September.
“The show is on the air one day, one night, one hour a week, and to me there is an incredible opportunity to take the show and do a lot of things with it,” Bilton told Variety during an interview last week.
He has called for increased content production at a time when a lot of people who might have expertise on how to do just that are, suddenly, gone. The 58th season of “60 Minutes” wrapped with seven correspondents. Now, there are only four. Anderson Cooper announced in February he would leave the show after nearly 20 years spent as a contributor. Last week, CBS News fired correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Also ousted: Draggan Mihailovich, the show’s executive editor, known for having an almost cinematic vision for stories, according to people familiarity with the series, and producers Guy Campanile and Matthew Poelvoy. The most notable exit may be that of Tanya Simon, who had just taken the reins of “60 Minutes” as executive producer last year — the first woman in the history of TV to do so.
