By Jasper Ward
June 2 (Reuters) – CBS News has terminated the contract of “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, two sources at the network said on Tuesday, joining more than half a dozen departures in recent weeks.
“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you,” the show’s executive producer, Nick Bilton, wrote in an email on Tuesday to Pelley that was seen by Reuters.
“I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately.”
Pelley confirmed that he was leaving CBS in an Instagram post on Wednesday, saying that “the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”
His termination from the network came amid media reports that he accused CBS News’ editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” “60 Minutes.”
In a note to the show’s staff, which was seen by Reuters, Bilton said the network had parted ways with Pelley and acknowledged “the great deal of change in a very short time” at “60 Minutes.”
Pelley joins more than half a dozen people who have departed the Sunday news magazine, which is the longest-running prime-time show in the U.S., in recent weeks. CBS fired Tanya Simon, the previous executive producer, as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
Skydance Media, run by David Ellison – the son of Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle and a longtime supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump – acquired Paramount in August and installed Weiss in October as editor-in-chief. David Ellison helped secure regulatory approval for the deal, which created Paramount Skydance, with the promise that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.
Prior to the deal, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit that Trump filed over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he said gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Additional reporting by Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Thomas Derpinghaus and Deepa Babington)
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