LOSING SUPPORT

Insiders Secretly Turn on MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Over ’60 Minutes’ Mayhem

As Bari Weiss torches a television institution, Paramount executives are quietly fuming, and some want her gone.

Paramount bosses are secretly turning on the new MAGA-curious CBS News boss Bari Weiss, according to insider accounts.

Senior figures inside Paramount, the parent company of CBS, are privately seething over the chaos unleashed by the CBS News editor-in-chief, whose aggressive overhaul of the legendary newsmagazine 60 Minutes has alarmed company leadership, according to Status. Multiple insiders even believe Weiss should be fired.

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CBS Entertainment chief Amy Reisenbach has privately told associates that Hollywood creatives have expressed contempt for Weiss’ efforts to remake the network, according to people familiar with the matter. Reisenbach has also made clear in those conversations that she believes Weiss is inflicting serious damage on the broader CBS brand—damage that is now becoming her problem too, Status reports.

Showrunners have approached Reisenbach in a panic, she has reportedly told associates, citing comments by newly installed 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton, who compared linear television to a rapidly melting ice cube. They asked why then they should keep developing broadcast programs for CBS. The more general charge against Weiss is that she is steering the network in what they see as a more MAGA-friendly direction.

Dozens of senior figures inside Paramount share the view that Weiss is damaging the company, Status reports—and some want her out.

The internal revolt comes as Bilton attempts to repair his relationship with the three correspondents still standing after a mass purge of veteran talent. Weiss and Bilton fired star correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega last week, and Anderson Cooper chose not to renew his contract. Then, on Tuesday, Bilton fired Scott Pelley—the show’s most-decorated correspondent and a 60 Minutes fixture since 2004—just one day after Pelley publicly confronted him in front of the entire staff.

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That confrontation, first reported by Guardian journalist Jeremy Barr, was a scorcher. Pelley did not mince words about Weiss, who wasn’t even in the room.

“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley told Bilton. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

Pelley also told Bilton he had “slender qualifications” for his new job, and that Weiss has “no qualifications” for hers. Weiss, he added, had made “catastrophic” changes to the program.

Pelley is the fourth correspondent to leave the storied show since February. The three who remain—Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl, and Jon Wertheim—met for an hour to discuss their futures at the show, Status reports. CBS News insiders, according to the New York Post, are already speculating about who walks next.

CBS has been contacted for comment.

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