Media
Pelley, a longtime correspondent and former “CBS Evening News” anchor, harshly criticized the show’s leadership during a staff meeting on Monday.
FILE – Scott Pelley at the CBS Upfront in New York, May 15, 2013. Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File
June 2, 2026
1 minute to read
CBS News fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday, jettisoning one of the network’s best-known journalists in a clash over the future of “60 Minutes,” the country’s top-rated news program.
Pelley, 68, a “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” joined the network in 1989. At a staff meeting Monday, he accused the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, of “murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” citing the ouster last week of the program’s leadership team and two on-air correspondents.
“We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Nick Bilton, the tech journalist who was hired last week as the new “60 Minutes” executive producer, wrote in a memo to the show’s staff Tuesday night.
This image released by CBS News shows Bari Weiss at the CBS News/Politico reception ahead of the White House correspondents dinner in Washington on April 25, 2026. – Mary Kouw/CBS News via AP
CBS News declined to comment. In a formal letter to Pelley, which was obtained by The New York Times, Bilton wrote that the correspondent had been “terminated for cause effective immediately.”
Pelley, in a telephone interview shortly after he was fired, said he had devoted decades of his life to “60 Minutes,” which he said he still cared about deeply.
“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” Pelley said. “I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast.”
The decision to fire Pelley will almost certainly spike the tensions that have coursed through CBS News for months, and within “60 Minutes” in particular.
It also raises the stakes of Weiss’ decision to replace the leadership team at “60 Minutes,” CBS News’ most successful franchise, and hire Bilton to oversee the show. The program’s viewership was up 9% this past season from a year prior, and the show is routinely among the nation’s highest-rated weekly broadcasts, according to Nielsen.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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