While the smoke has begun to clear at โ60 Minutesโ after three correspondents were fired, CBS News leadership now faces the challenge of finding journalists who can fill their shoes just three months before a new season starts.
The venerable news magazine was plunged into crisis last week as longtime correspondent Scott Pelley confronted management about the May 28 firings of his colleagues Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega along with the programโs executive producer Tanya Simon and her second-in-command Draggan Mihailovich.
Pelley, who also accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of โmurderingโ the program, was terminated June 2 after a 37-year career at the network. He later gave an interview to The New York Times, accusing Weiss of โputting her thumb on the scaleโ for the Trump administration when guiding the editorial direction of stories.
(CBS News denied Pelleyโs accusations. But Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison, who has given Weiss a free hand in disrupting the CBS News hierarchy, found the turbulent situation concerning enough to personally reach out to veteran โ60 Minutesโ correspondent Lesley Stahl, according to The New York Times. He assured Stahl that he will respect the editorial independence of the program, a message she passed along to the staff.)
Lesley Stahl in the 2022 film โMarcel the Shell With Shoes On.โ
(A24)
The recent personnel bloodbath followed the already announced departure of Anderson Cooper, and leaves CBS News with four correspondent roles to fill and a far less experienced executive producer โ former tech journalist Nick Bilton in place to keep the program on track.
Remaining staffers were encouraged that Maria Gavrilovic, a 19-year veteran of CBS News who worked closely with Pelley, was promoted to senior producer under Bilton. They are also relieved that correspondents Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker chose to remain with the program rather than leave in solidarity with Pelley.
Norah OโDonnellโs interview with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2021.
But โ60 Minutesโ is under pressure to get a new team in place as newcomers will have little time to learn the programโs formula that gives it the comforting consistency its viewers seek. The 13-minute pieces on โ60 Minutesโ are filmed, written and voice-tracked in a distinctive narrative style that takes time to master, according to people who have gone through the process.
Weiss has told people internally that โ60 Minutesโ is the most important platform within the news division and if a major story comes from outside its corps of correspondents, it will find a place on the program.
Here are the leading contenders for full-time roles based on interviews with several sources at CBS News who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. A CBS News representative declined comment.
Holly Williams: Williams has been a foreign correspondent working out of Istanbul since 2012. The Australian journalist has reported extensively from war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza and Ukraine. When covering Syriaโs civil war from inside the country, she and her team gained access to a prison where alleged ISIS terrorists were being held.
Williams has contributed reports to โ60 Minutesโ over the years. Before joining CBS, she was a Beijing-based correspondent for Sky News.
CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams,
(Michele Crowe / CBS News)
Tony Dokoupil: The anchor of โCBS Evening Newsโ is expected to be added as a contributor to โ60 Minutes,โ a role also given to his predecessors at the newscast including Dan Rather, Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and Norah OโDonnell.
Dokoupil has done longer interviews and segments for โCBS Sunday Morningโ over his 11 years at the network. The additional exposure to a Sunday night audience of more than 9 million who tune into โ60 Minutesโ could also help boost his nightly newscast. The program has struggled in the ratings since he took over in January when, during his inaugural week, he awkwardly saluted Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the close of one episode.
โCBS Evening Newsโ anchor Tony Dokoupil and the networkโs chief national correspondent Matt Gutman.
(CBS News)
Matt Gutman: The networkโs national correspondent was Weissโ first significant on-air talent hire when he joined from ABC News in December. Gutman has been a frequent presence on big stories and breaking coverage for โCBS Evening Newsโ since he arrived.
Mariana van Zeller at the Ultimate Disney Fan Event at the Anaheim Convention Center in September 2022.
(Image Group LA / Walt Disney Co.)
Mariana van Zeller: The multilingual journalist is best known for her documentary series โTrafficked,โ which airs on the National Geographic Channel. Van Zeller, 50, has won dozens of awards for the program that has taken her around the world to report on black market activities and human trafficking.
Norah OโDonnell: Currently a contributor to โ60 Minutesโ who already appears on the programโs trademark open, OโDonnellโs role is expected to expand. After CBS settled a $16-million lawsuit filed by President Trump against the program for what he claimed was deceptive editing of an interview, OโDonnell helped the program by stepping up to interview the president twice, subjecting him to tough questions. Her recent joint interview with three U.S. cardinals about Pope Leo XIV and his churchโs opposition to the Iran war and Trumpโs aggressive immigration crackdown became a major story in April.
Major Garrett: The networkโs chief Washington correspondent recently appeared on โ60 Minutesโ to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The assignment caused internal tension as Stahl was pursuing a sit-down with the leader. But Weiss handled the booking and gave Netanyahu the option to select Garrett.
While the decision faced some criticism, the program regularly agreed to former President Obamaโs preference for now-retired โ60 Minutesโ correspondent Steve Kroft to interview him even though other journalists on the team wanted a chance.