‘FREAKED ME OUT’

‘60 Minutes’ Legend Reveals Major Flaw With MAGA-fied Show

The show’s direction makes him want to “scream bloody murder,” he said.

Bill Owens, the former executive producer of 60 Minutes, is speaking out against the show under its new MAGA-friendly Skydance leadership.

“They own the company; they can do whatever they want,” Owens, 60, said in a new interview with Semafor. “But the ratings are telling.”

Skydance’s Trumpy boss David Ellison, 43, appointed the MAGA-curious Bari Weiss as the chief of CBS News in Oct. 2025. Weiss, 42, had no broadcast experience before taking over, having founded the conservative site The Free Press in 2021 after resigning from The New York Times in a blaze of anti-wokeness.

Her overhaul has resulted in the firing of 60 Minutes mainstays like Scott Pelley, accusations of censorship, and a staggering ratings plummet. Owens resigned from CBS News in April 2025 after nearly 40 years with the network, citing Ellison’s threat to its editorial independence. He said the show’s ratings disaster would have caused copious anxiety if he were still in charge.

“There’s no doubt that linear television is in decline,” Owens said. “But the numbers the other day were less than 6 million people. It’s like the evening news. 60 Minutes? That would have freaked me out.”

Owens also criticized the show’s shifting editorial style. He said that many interview questions ignore the hard-hitting, newsworthy topics in favor of bolstering MAGA figures.

He used 60 Minutes’ March interview with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as an example; Owens believes the show asked the wrong questions while discussing President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

“Some of it is subjective. But other things are just questions that need to be asked,” he said, adding, “They didn’t ask how the war was going. I would have turned to the producing team and screamed bloody murder.”

Owens announced in October that he’ll join the media startup Newpress as its executive producer in March. The platform publishes on YouTube.

His goal in quitting 60 Minutes was “to cause enough of a commotion that they would kind of back off,” he said. But, Owens noted, his efforts worked out differently than he hoped.

“The people, my senior team, the correspondents, they’ve tried their best,” he said. “But it’s just a really difficult circumstance.”

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Dana Herrnstadt Editorial Intern, Obsessed

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