Brian Williams thinks “60 Minutes” could use an update, while he and veteran television producer Jonathan Wald remain bullish on the future of news.
The former NBC News anchor said Wednesday that the long-running CBS newsmagazine could “use a new coat of paint,” arguing that the program should air throughout the year rather than largely relying on encore broadcasts during the summer.
“I always found curious that a news broadcast took the summer off,” Williams said during a conversation with Wald moderated by Oliver Darcy at the inaugural Status Summit in New York. “I’d like to see a 52-week-a-year broadcast.”
Williams traced the tradition back to “60 Minutes” creator Don Hewitt and his love of tennis, quipping that Hewitt would play from Memorial Day to Labor Day before returning to work.
“Apparently news stops during those months,” Williams joked.
His comments come as “60 Minutes” prepares to launch its 59th season Sunday under executive producer Nick Bilton following a tumultuous overhaul at CBS News. TheWrap reported Tuesday that Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, Jon Wertheim, Norah O’Donnell and Ross Douthat make up the program’s core correspondent lineup, alongside a group of new contributors.
Williams and Wald also weighed in on the broader upheaval engulfing traditional television. Williams, who anchored “NBC Nightly News” before hosting MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour,” said the medium has fundamentally changed.
“I think linear TV is done with all of us,” Williams said. “It just sort of isn’t what it used to be.”
Wald, meanwhile, sees opportunity in the disruption of traditional media, arguing that the collapse of the old network system has opened doors for journalists and creators that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be alive,” Wald said, pointing to platforms including Beehiiv and Substack.
“I think the collapse of the traditional media superstructure, the network system that reared me from infancy until I left MSNBC, I think that collapse has created opportunity that nobody could have imagined four years ago, three years ago,” he added.
Wald also pushed back against assuming the changes underway at CBS News will necessarily prove damaging, saying he doesn’t think editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is “automatically bad for the news business.”
“I think all of it remains to be seen,” Wald said.
Despite Williams’ assessment of linear television and Wald’s embrace of alternatives emerging around it, neither veteran was ready to write off television journalism. Williams singled out foreign correspondents including CNN’s Clarissa Ward and NBC News’ Richard Engel as “national treasures,” praising journalists who continue to do dangerous reporting around the world.
And when asked directly whether he remained optimistic about the future of news, Williams didn’t hesitate.
“Yes,” he said. “As long as there are stories and people to tell them, as long as there’s an audience.”
