UPDATE: Scott Pelley was terminated from “60 Minutes” Tuesday evening, hours after the longtime correspondent met with CBS News leadership to discuss Monday’s clash.
“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,” “60 Minutes” executive producer Bilton wrote in a letter sent to Pelley. “And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately.”
Bilton then broke the news of Pelley’s exit with the “60 Minutes” team, voicing his “unyielding support” for the remaining employees.
Read his full message to the “60 Minutes” team below.
“You should hear this from me first. We have parted ways with Scott Pelley.
I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.
What I regret most is that this situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show. I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
I won’t relitigate the last week with you here. What I will commit to is this: My unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what we will do together going forward.”
PREVIOUS: Scott Pelley is expected to part ways with “60 Minutes” and CBS News after locking horns with new executive producer Nick Bilton and accusing editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the program.
Pelley met with network leadership Tuesday evening, according to multiple reports, but could not “find common ground,” according to multiple reports. The former “CBS Evening News” anchor accused Weiss of “murdering” the long-running news program in a heated meeting Monday, after last week’s dismissal of executive producer Tanya Simon and a number of correspondents, including “Inside CECOT” journalist Sharyn Alfonsi.
“She’s murdering ‘60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place,” Pelley said, according to leaked audio, interrupting a morning staff meeting with Simon’s replacement, Bilton. “She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”
Pelley also called out the new executive producer, a former tech journalist and filmmaker with no previous broadcast TV experience, for his “slender qualifications for this job.”
Pelley met with CBS News leadership to discuss Monday’s clash on Tuesday afternoon and ultimately set the stage for his firing or quitting.
“Scott Pelley had a meeting with CBS News leadership at 5pm ET to discuss a path forward after his protest in 60 Minutes all-hands,” Puck’s Dylan Byers first reported. “The two sides did not find common ground and it now seems likely he will either resign or be fired, though neither has happened yet.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter separately confirmed Puck’s report.
Additional reports out of NBC News indicate that Bilton met one-on-one with other staffers as planned Tuesday amid the Pelley turmoil.
Representatives for CBS News did not return TheWrap’s request for comment.
A person close to CBS News leadership called Pelley’s outburst “disappointing” in a Monday night call with TheWrap, noting that Weiss and Bilton had made several attempts in the last week to reach out to the correspondent and communicate that he’s valued at “60 Minutes.”
Pelley is easily the most prominent figure remaining at “60 Minutes” amid Weiss’ recent shakeup, which saw the departures of — among others — correspondents Cecilia Vega and Alfonsi. However, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim all still remain on at “60 Minutes.”
Nonetheless, Pelley’s loss would be substantial, given he became the most-awarded correspondent in the show’s history. In addition to 40 Emmys, Pelley has four Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, three Peabodys, multiple Murrow, Loeb, and Writers Guild honors and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.
