The executive producer of “60 Minutes” is working to rebuild the storied program after CBS News boss Bari Weiss purged a slew of talent and executives at the show.
Following a tumultuous season, editor-in-chief Weiss fired a handful of correspondents, including Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as well as executive producer Tanya Simon and three other top producers.
She brought in Nick Bilton, a former New York Times and Vanity Fair journalist, to replace Simon – a surprising hire who has been tasked with rebuilding the 57-year-old show and expanding it digitally.
On Tuesday, Bilton revealed a slew of new additions to the show plus one familiar face, Norah O’Donnell, who most recently served as a senior correspondent for the network and recently launched a podcast, too. Bilton said she will become a correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
The executive producer also said he is bringing on conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat as a correspondent, along with contributors Sebastian Junger, a former ABC News journalist who is best known for his book “The Perfect Storm,” and Gianna Tononi, a former Vice News journalist.
They will join former Sky News journalist Trevor Phillips, who was named as the network’s senior global affairs correspondent last month.
“Today, I am pleased to share some great news, and the first of many exciting announcements to come,” Bilton wrote in a memo he shared on social media. ”An exceptional lineup of journalists will be joining ‘60 Minutes,’ carrying on its tradition of fearless, independent and impartial reporting. I can’t wait for them to get started.”
Bilton has spent the past two months working to rebuild the talent line-up at “60 Minutes,” after the firings. Anderson Cooper resigned earlier in the year, too. Weiss also ousted executive producer Tanya Simon and senior producers Draggan Mihailovich, Guy Campanile and Matthew Polevoy as she moves to reinvent the show.
Bilton called out O’Donnell as a “powerhouse” who has contributed “exceptional pieces to the show” for over a dozen years, including interviews with Pope Francis, President Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden and Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman.
He also cited Douthat, whom he called a “preeminent public intellectual” who has on-camera interviews with Vice President JD Vance, Dario Amodei, Hasan Piker, Amy Coney Barrett and others.Douthat’s work at The Times and The Atlantic and in his own books covered politics, religion, culture – and his own struggle with Lyme disease.
“He makes controversial topics approachable and renders characters and points of view with richness and compassion,” Bilton said.
He also called Junger a “generational talent,” citing his nonfiction work, “The Perfect Storm,” which became a bestseller in 1997.
“Sebastian carried that intensity and that ethos of deep reporting to his work as a documentarian, broadcast journalist and war correspondent,” Bilton wrote, pointing to Junger’s time covering the war in Afghanistan for ABC News, among other undertakings.
Both men will be based in New York.
Bilton finally turned to Tononi, who is joining as a “60 Minutes” contributor and a CBS News National correspondent.
The journo, who will be based in California, most recently worked as a reporter at CNN. Prior to that, she was a correspondent at Vice News and Vice on HBO, where she interviewed members of ISIS and investigated cartel violence in Mexico.
“Ross, Sebastian, Gianna and Trevor are entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences,” Bilton said.
“Between them they have written books and magazine articles, produced documentaries and TV shows and podcasts, hosted live events and built brands on independent platforms.”
They will join veteran “60 Minutes” correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, Jon Wertheim and O’Donnell for the next season, which kicks off in mid-September.
