CBS Taps Tech Journalist Nick Bilton to Run ’60 Minutes’ — His First TV Job, and a Defining Bet for the Embattled Show
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has appointed Nick Bilton — a tech columnist and filmmaker with no broadcast experience — as executive producer of 60 Minutes, replacing Tanya Simon amid ongoing turmoil that has included the exits of Anderson Cooper and Sharyn Alfonsi.
- CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss appointed Nick Bilton — a former New York Times tech columnist, Vanity Fair investigative journalist, and filmmaker — as executive producer of 60 Minutes, marking the latest major shake-up at a program that has been in near-constant turmoil since Weiss’s arrival
- Bilton, who directed the 2021 HBO documentary Fake Famous about influencer culture and has written books about technological disruption, has no prior broadcast television experience — an unprecedented background for the EP chair at America’s longest-running prime-time news magazine
- He replaces Tanya Simon, who had been in the role for less than a year; Simon had spent three decades at the program before being named EP in 2025
- The appointment comes after Anderson Cooper announced his abrupt departure from 60 Minutes and CBS declined to renew correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract months after pulling her segment on widespread torture in Salvadoran prisons; Christiane Amanpour has publicly criticized the show’s new leadership
- In his introductory memo to staff, Bilton called the position “the best job in journalism” and framed his mandate around modernization: “The world we are reporting on, and the world we are reporting to, has moved. And if we don’t move with it, in the ways that matter, we won’t be here for the next sixty years”
60 Minutes, the CBS News program that has been America’s most-watched news magazine for 52 consecutive seasons, has a new executive producer — and he’s never worked in broadcast television before.
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced Thursday that Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker, will take the EP chair, per The Wrap. Bilton spent years writing about Silicon Valley and technological disruption for The New York Times, then moved to investigative journalism at Vanity Fair. He directed Netflix and HBO documentaries, most notably Fake Famous, a 2021 HBO film examining influencer culture. He will replace Tanya Simon, who had been in the role less than a year — she had worked at the program for three decades before being elevated to the top job in 2025.
Weiss described Bilton as “one of the most entrepreneurial and ambitious journalists working today.” Bilton called the appointment “the honor of my career.”
‘Evolving or Dying Isn’t a Threat. It’s Simple Math.’
In his introductory memo to the 60 Minutes staff, Bilton made clear that modernization is the assignment. “The world we are reporting on, and the world we are reporting to, where people consume their news, has moved,” he wrote. “And if we don’t move with it, in the ways that matter, we won’t be here for the next sixty years.” He framed the challenge in characteristically tech-journalist terms: he’s spent his career watching industries get “obliterated” by technological change, and he intends 60 Minutes to be one of the institutions that adapts rather than disappears.
What that evolution actually looks like, he declined to say — not yet. “I have a notebook full of ideas,” he wrote, teasing changes to the show format, the correspondent pipeline, and the program’s relationship to a media landscape that no longer runs on Sunday-night appointment viewing. He said he’d spend his first 30 days listening and share a direction after that.
The appointment lands at a genuinely difficult moment for the show. Anderson Cooper announced his abrupt departure from 60 Minutes earlier this year. CBS declined to renew the contract of longtime correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi six months after pulling her segment on conditions inside El Salvador’s Cecot prison. Christiane Amanpour has publicly criticized the editorial decisions made under the new leadership, per HuffPost/Yahoo. The network’s owner, David Ellison of Paramount Skydance, has drawn criticism from journalists and media observers who see the changes as ideologically motivated. Weiss has disputed that characterization.
Bilton addressed the trust question directly in his memo, invoking the show’s very first broadcast: “On the very first episode of 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace said: ‘If this broadcast does what we hope it will do it will report reality.’ I can’t think of a better north star for 60 Minutes than that. Above all, that means a commitment to fairness — in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.” The show first aired in September 1968. Whether Bilton can bring it into 2026 intact is the question everyone in the building is now waiting to see answered.
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