After months of roster shakeups, “60 Minutes” has named Maria Gavrilovic and Chris Stewart as its new executive editors. The former is promoted within the organization from her role as senior producer, while the latter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who comes over to Bari Weiss‘ CBS from The Wall Street Journal.
“As Executive Editors, Maria and Chris round out the leadership team of ’60 Minutes.’ They’ll be by my side throughout the season and around the floor, and you’ll all work closely with both of them,” Executive Producer Nick Bilton shared in a memo obtained by TheWrap. “Maria and I will keep doing what we’ve been doing, working on every aspect of the broadcast, screenings and the lineup. Chris and I will focus on story ideation, our investigations and our digital storytelling.”
Per the memo, Gavrilovic is an award-winning journalist who has been with the organization for 17 years, a longtime member of the organization who has remained through the turmoil of Weiss’ leadership. Her work at “60 Minutes” includes interviews with Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, as well as the crucial sit-down that revealed the identity of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Mikey Madison at the centered of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning”).
Stewart, meanwhile, is a Wall Street Journal reporter of 15 years who won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2015 for his work with the publication titled “Medicare Unmasked.”
“I have said since June that we need to invest more in investigative journalism, which has always been the heartbeat of this broadcast. I’ve also said we need to take that journalism beyond Sunday night and reach audiences wherever they are,” Bilton said in the memo. “You should all be proud of the amazing work you’ve done so far on season 59. It stands as the foundation for everything we’ve built, and with Chris and Maria alongside me, l’ve never been more excited about what’s to come.” You can read the full memo below.
Gavrilovic and Stewart assume their new positions just nine days before the premiere of Season 59 of “60 Minutes,” now under the leadership of Bilton, who took over earlier this year. Exactly one month earlier, Bilton sent a welcome-back memo urging staff to tune out rumors as they prepare for the season ahead, which starts just under a year after Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
“Since I started here there has been roughly a rumor a day,” Bilton wrote at the time. “About me, about you, about what’s coming next — 95 percent of them are fabrications and blatantly incorrect.”
The New York Times’ Ben Mullin was first to report the news.
