The three remaining correspondents at CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes will remain with the show for its next season.
In a memo to the show’s staff, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said that, while they had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes after the ouster of top producers and correspondents like Tanya Simon, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, they have opted to stay with the show.
“We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not the case,” they wrote. “Here’s why we’re are staying: We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die.”
The memo comes after CBS news editor-in-chief Bari Weiss dramatically shook up the show, ousting executive producer Tanya Simon and two of her top deputies, and bringing in tech journalist Nick Bilton to succeed her. She also parted ways with Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. In a fiery staff meeting early this week, correspondent Scott Pelley accused Weiss of trying to kill the show, and said that Bilton had “slender qualifications” for arguably the most prestigious job in TV news.
Pelly was fired from the show the following day.
