‘60 Minutes’ Faces New Challenge After Off-Season Chaos: Getting Back on the Air

The next season of “60 Minutes” will likely be brought to you by a handful of pharmaceutical sponsors and a whole lot of pressure.

When Bari Weiss, the one-time digital provocateur who was installed as editor in chief last year at CBS News, overhauled the venerable newsmagazine in May and June, ousting two of its top editorial personnel and two of its best-known on-air personalities, she set in motion something to which producers in the off season have not always been accustomed: chaos.

To be sure, “60 Minutes” has tangled with corporate attorneys, politicians and other challenging subjects. But the program has never had to grapple with its own internal processes being undermined from within. When Weiss cut former executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mahialvich, and Sharyn Alfoni and Cecelia Vega (with Scott Pelley exiled later), she did so at a critical moment (Anderson Cooper in February announced he would step away from the program after nearly two decades, marking another reduction in veteran staff). Most of the show’s personalities try to have a produced story on an evergreen topic like health, science or culture in the can before taking a vacation in July. This year, according to people familiar with the program, much of that work wasn’t approved, and therefore was not filed in timely fashion.

Now Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, could be left with less room to maneuver as “60 Minutes” prepares for its 59^th season, slated to start Sunday, September 13 — a few weeks earlier than the norm.

“Generally, the show has about a dozen or so evergreens in the bank by the season premiere. The expectation is, every producer should have one piece produced — one piece approved and in the bank — with a second one in production by the season premiere in September,” says one former longtime “60 Minutes” producer. Those stories will serve the show well as it steers into a new cycle. “The most critical and most demanding part of the year is from the end of August until the end of March, basically the NFL season into March Madness. It’s nonstop. Three new, fully vetted, 13-minute pieces each — minidocumentaries, really — week after week for months. The math is crushing. The deadlines are punishing.”

The start of the new “60” season will serve as a real-time test. Segments from the newsmagazine that have had time to marinate are proven to be appetizing. But what of stuff that is served, like most TV-news programming, fresher from the grill?

Bilton has approved more than three dozen stories, according to a person familiar with the matter, with each in various stages of production, which include research, shooting, writing and more. This person says more than a dozen stories are in the editing process, either being screened or being prepared for screening.. Bilton wants to continue and augment the show’s tradition of investigative reporting, this person says, and also sees an opportunity for “60” to weigh in heavily on the effects of AI on the world and all facets of society, much in the way “60 Minutes” featured coverage of the Vietnam War or the tobacco industry in decades past. More decisions tied to senior leadership are expected to be unveiled in days to come.

Bilton has assembled a new coterie of “60 Minutes” personalities, including former New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and author Sebastian Junger. Norah O’Donnell, a former “CBS Evening News” anchor, has been named to the correspondent team. And veterans Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim were cajoled to stay despite the way their colleagues were treated.

Still, “60 Minutes” has its own way of ticking, according to people familiar with the show, and it’s not easy to get into gear.

A lot is at stake for Weiss, Bilton, CBS News and corporate overseers at Paramount Skydance as the show moves toward what may be its most unusual season yet. While Weiss and others at CBS News think “60 Minutes” needs to do more to appeal to digital audiences and employs too many producers working on too few stories, the simple fact of the matter is that the program is the jewel of the CBS network. “This is the biggest challenge that ’60 Minutes’ faces,” says Ben Bogardus, chairman of the journalism department at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. “The producers need to find a way to reach younger viewers where and when they consume news and information, but at the same time not turn away older viewers who still make up most of the show’s audience.”

That crowd helps bring ad dollars to Paramount’s coffers. “60 Minutes” snared $67.2 million in ad revenue in 2025, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. And the audience for the program rose 9% during its most recent season — no small feat in the streaming era.

Also of note: “60 Minutes” serves as a conduit that brings audiences from CBS’ Sunday NFL showcase into its primetime lineup. Any decrease in ratings this season would undermine the luster of NFL games at a time when the league is already holding preliminary discussions with Paramount about the possibility of renewing the company’s current rights deal.

That’s a lot to put in the hands of less experienced personnel. The program has been holding talks with new producer candidates during the summer, even as correspondents are supposed to be filing new stories — all adding elements of potential disorder to the show’s off-season operations. Bilton is relying heavily on Maria Gavrilovic, a longtime producer who worked extensively with Pelley, and who has been elevated to a senior role, as well as dozens of longtime staffers familiar with the ways of the show, says the person familiar with the show’s work over the summer.  He is also working to find ways to make “60 Minutes” more relevant to a generation of news aficionados who might be more interested in podcasts and newsletters, this person says, and is examining ways to update internal proceses. Viewers should not see shocking changes to the look and feel of the program, this person says, but may notice what were described as “gentle” tweaks to its presence on air.

CBS News declined to make producers or executives available for comment.

The looming season debut is just the latest in what has been a surreal string of events surrounding the newsmagazine. The show was turned into a bargaining chip between Paramount’s previous managers and the Trump administration, which leveraged a $16 million settlement to President Donald Trump to end what had been viewed in many legal circles as a flimsy lawsuit tied to a pre-Election Day interview between Bill Whitaker, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, and former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount made the deal as it sought to complete its sale to Skydance.

As a result, two senior CBS News executives — Bill Owens, the former executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and Wendy McMahon, the former CEO of CBS News, local stations and syndication — suggested in remarks that they could no longer push back against corporate mandates they felt would weaken the newsroom. Both left CBS News last year.

There is a lot of skepticism about how well the staff can proceed in weeks to come. When former “60 Minutes” executive producers like Jeff Fager or Owens “had to crash a story in the middle of the season, it took everything they had to keep the show on the rails,” says one person familiar with the workings of the show. “I have no idea how this team is equipped to do something like that.”

Having a broad array of stories at the ready can only help. “Every Sunday, you want a mix — a hard-hitting lead, an international story, a lighter feature. The idea is, if some viewers aren’t interested in the piece about climate change or the war in Ukraine, they’ll stick around for the profile of Christopher Nolan or Lady Gaga. That kind of variety only works if you’ve got a bank to draw from,” says the former producer. Besides, there can often be an emergency need for a back-up story, particularly if a subject backs out of a timely report or a story that was supposed to be ready requires last-minute changes. “It doesn’t happen every week, but it’s not a hypothetical either.”

For decades, “60 Minutes” personnel have been steeped in the ways of the program. Getting a segment on air “is a whole gauntlet,” the former producer recalls, involving meticulous research and rounds of scripting. Stories also go through multiple screenings with the staff. “Sometimes it gets heated — loud arguments, especially in the old days, people practically ready to throw a phone across the room. But everyone wants the same thing in the end: making the story better. And that just takes time,” the former producer says. “It takes time to get there.”

The off-season interruptions will take a toll, says the former producer. “With thin experience at the top and no real bank of stories to fall back on, the staff is going to have to work like hell just to get the show on the air every week. And they’ll be doing it in an atmosphere where a lot of people still feel underappreciated and still haven’t gotten over how badly Tanya and Draggan were treated,” this person says. “The producers’ professionalism will carry them forward. But that’s a lot to ask of people.”

Other media moguls have sought to update beloved journalism properties by weaning them away from long-held traditions. After Rupert Murodch’s News Corp. snatched The Wall Street Journal away from its longtime owners, the Bancroft family, in 2008, Robert Thomson, named to lead the paper, famously complained that its signature front-page “leders” took too long to produce. Many of the pieces, Thomson joked, had “the gestation of a llama.”  The Wall Street Journal of 2026 features a wider array shorter stories along with snappier headlines, but in some cases, critics would argue, less depth.

The debate may be moot. News Corp. in August said its Dow Jones segment, which contains The Journal, saw revenue increase by 7%, driven by circulation, subscriptions and advertising.

But discussion continues. Both Stahl and Whitaker at a recent party held for Tanya Simon, the former executive producer, were heard acknowledging their trepidation about staying with the show, according to people who were present at the event. Even so, Whitaker, whose remarks were previously reported by the media newsletter Status, indicated he intended to do his best to stick to “60” traditions. And Stahl has been hard at work, according to one of the people familiar with the show.

Some news aficionados may watch new episodes to see how their efforts hold up. “Initially, the television versions of stories will probably look more or less the same, in order to avoid alienating the program’s audience with jarring changes,” says Bogardus. “But viewers may start to notice an increased presence on social media, with vertical-video versions of stories that play well on Instagram and TikTok, audio and video podcast versions of interviews that are longer and less edited than the ones used in the TV broadcasts, more on-demand streaming options online and on YouTube, and stories told about topics that interest a younger audience, instead of the generally older demographic that is still loyal to the over-the-air version of the show.”

The facts are in: At summer’s end, “60 Minutes” has no time left for immediate self-improvement, and a season of shows that need to be filled.