NewzNEW YORK (AP) — Two months after a major shakeup, CBS’s “60 Minutes” has hired a lineup of new correspondents and contributors in time for its 59th season, including Ross Douthat, a conservative opinion columnist at The New York Times, and Norah O’Donnell, former anchor of “CBS Evening News.” The show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, announced the news in a staff memo Tuesday, shared on X. Joining Douthat and O’Donnell will be author Sebastian Junger, Trevor Phillips and Gianna Toboni. All will be contributors to the show.
The new journalists join current correspondents Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker. Their hirings come two months after a shakeup at the storied program, led by the network’s new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. Weiss installed Bilton, who has little substantive broadcast news experience, as executive producer, replacing Tanya Simon, who was let go after a 30-plus year tenure with the show.
Also let go were correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega — and soon after, Scott Pelley, after a tense confrontation with his bosses over the changes. In addition to the three dismissed, Anderson Cooper — whose primary job is at CNN — said earlier this year he was leaving of his own accord after two decades. CBS News leaders enthused about the hires Weiss and Tom Cibrowski, the CBS News president, praised the new hires in an internal memo.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this news,” the two said, welcoming the new additions. “Onward!” Bilton called Douthat “one of the preeminent public intellectuals in America today, a thinker of uncommon rigor and a journalist of deep empathy.” The columnist has spent nearly two decades at the Times and is an author of numerous books. The producer called O’Donnell “a powerhouse.” “You’ve seen her all over the network.
And you’ll see much more of her in our halls because Norah will be a correspondent on 60 Minutes.” Bilton praised Junger for his nonfiction work “The Perfect Storm,” about a catastrophic 1991 storm. The book “landed with an electric charge in the world of reported nonfiction, defining an intense and intimate form of storytelling and establishing Sebastian as a generational talent,” Bilton said. Toboni joins“60 Minutes” as a contributor and CBS News as a national correspondent.
Previously a senior correspondent with VICE News and VICE on HBO, she comes t… All will be contributors to the show.The new journalists join current correspondents Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker. Douthat, an opinion columnist at The New York Times, will join the CBS News program, along with several other journalists.
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