“60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton is urging his staff to ignore the rumors and focus on reporting as the CBS newsmagazine prepares to launch its 59th season.
The message came in a welcome-back memo to employees this week, reviewed by TheWrap. Status first reported on the note Monday night.
The 734-word memo, sent after the show’s July break, primarily serves as a roadmap for the weeks leading up to the Sept. 20 season premiere. Bilton outlines newsroom updates, announces several hires, previews expanded investments in investigative reporting, encourages greater in-office collaboration and details operational changes, including a new digital story board replacing the newsroom’s dry-erase version.
Bilton also announced that Tanya Lukyanova has joined the program as an associate producer after previous roles at The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and The Free Press. He said senior investigative producer Michael Kaplan has joined the program on loan from the CBS News investigative unit to work on two major stories for Season 59, while Pulitzer finalist Scott Pham will support the broadcast’s data-driven reporting.
Toward the end of the memo, Bilton addressed the steady stream of rumors surrounding “60 Minutes” since he took over as executive producer in May.
“Since I started here there has been roughly a rumor a day,” Bilton wrote. “About me, about you, about what’s coming next — 95 percent of them are fabrications and blatantly incorrect.”
He added that he “no longer” has “the time or the patience” for leaks and speculation, encouraging employees to bring questions directly to him rather than rely on workplace rumors.
“If you hear something and it matters to you, come ask me and I’ll tell you what I know,” Bilton wrote. “Otherwise I’d like this place to be talked about for what we put on television.”
Bilton also encouraged employees to spend more time collaborating in person when they are not reporting in the field, writing that while he was not interested in “taking attendance,” the broadcast “has never been made by people working alone at desks in different zip codes.”
The executive producer concluded by reminding staff that “60 Minutes” is 43 days away from its Season 59 premiere, calling the program “the greatest team in journalism” and urging employees to focus on the work ahead.
Bilton succeeded longtime executive producer Bill Owens earlier this year during a period of significant change at CBS News. Since then, the newsmagazine has remained under intense industry scrutiny amid leadership changes, editorial shifts and reports of internal tensions.
