60 Minutes has named its next executive producer, three months after its former boss abruptly quit in protest. Tanya Simon—daughter of the show’s legendary correspondent Bob Simon—will become the first woman to run the TV news magazine and just the fourth person to hold the role since the CBS show debuted in 1968. Simon took over as executive producer on an interim basis in April, after Bill Owens resigned and warned about fraying journalistic independence on his way out. All seven of the program’s correspondents—including heavyweights Lesley Stahl and Anderson Cooper—signed on to a letter in May urging CBS’ parent company Paramount to remove the “interim” from Simon’s job title. Now, she will take over control of the country’s top-rated news broadcast weeks after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement with President Trump. Simon has been with the program since 2000 and previously spent six seasons as executive editor. In an Instagram post on Thursday, 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi posted a picture of herself, Simon, Stahl, and fellow reporter Cecilia Vega with the caption, “I am certain that if [Tanya Simon] is running the show....We’re in good hands.”
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