CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has brought in someone who has never worked in broadcast news to lead the network’s most storied program, 60 Minutes.
Nick Bilton, a former tech columnist, will replace Tanya Simon, a producer at the program for nearly 30 years, The New York Times reported.
Placing Bilton, 49, in the role makes it one of Weiss’s boldest moves yet in her effort to make CBS News more Trump-friendly.
Bilton has no broadcast production experience, previously working as a technology columnist at the Times, and later at Vanity Fair as a correspondent covering technology, politics, and culture.
He has produced two HBO documentaries, Fake Famous, a film about aspiring social media influencers, and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, about conwoman Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
“When you take an insider and you put them inside a company, nothing changes,” Bilton said.
“I’m not saying that we’re going to change the show completely and drastically. I’m saying that there are all these approaches and ideas that we can do that I couldn’t be more excited to jump into. And I think you need that outside vision to be able to do that,” he added.
CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weiss’s handling of 60 Minutes has faced severe pushback from longtime producers, many of whom have quit or been forced out. Weiss, who also had no experience in TV news before assuming her role, has been publicly called out by producers for meddling with their production.
Her handling of a 60 Minutes segment on the conditions at CECOT, the notorious mega-prison where the Trump administration has been sending deportees, made staff particularly irate, as Weiss shelved it at the last minute.
Simon, who Bilton is replacing, had been at 60 Minutes since 1999. She was the program’s fourth executive producer and first woman to hold the role.
“While leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter—I want to be unequivocally clear about one thing: it has been an immense privilege to lead this broadcast, and I could not be prouder of what we have built, fought for, and delivered together over the last year,“ she said in a statement confirming her departure.
In addition to Simon, two other high-profile women at 60 Minutes were also pushed out on Thursday: correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who clashed with Weiss over the shelved CECOT segment, and correspondent Cecilia Vega.
“Following an intense editorial dispute over our CECOT story, repeated attempts by my representation to establish a path forward were met with absolute silence from network executives,” Alfonsi said in a statement on her departure. “The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over.”
Executive editor Draggan Mihailovich was also pushed out of his role at the program on Thursday, Puck reported.
CNN star and former longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper left the program on his own accord earlier this year.
During his final appearance, he said, “I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes. There’s very few things that have been around for as long as 60 Minutes has and maintained the quality that it has.”
Still, some men appear to be staying. Variety reported veteran correspondents Scott Pelley and Bill Whitaker have time remaining on their contracts.
