Who is Nick Bilton? Meet the New Executive Producer of ’60 Minutes’

On June 2, just days after Bilton’s appointment, the new executive producer told staff that longtime host Scott Pelley had been “fired, effective immediately.”

“You should hear this from me first. We have said goodbye to Scott Pelley,” Bilton confirmed in the memo. “I know how much Scott meant to many of you, and I don’t say this lightly. I tried to have direct conversations with him repeatedly over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That wasn’t the path Scott chose.

“Yesterday you hijacked my first meeting with staff to discredit me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable rudeness and contempt. I welcome a diversity of views and respectful debate within the team, but this was nothing of the sort,” he lashed out at Scott.

In leaked audio recordings obtained by various news media, including The Washington Post And The New York TimesPelley was heard criticizing CBS News’ direction amid a sweeping series of high-profile layoffs during an introductory morning meeting for Bilton.

After Bilton said Weiss “loves this institution” and “loves 60 minutes‘, Pelly replied, ‘she is killing 60 minutes. She doesn’t like this place. She was brought in to kill it and does just that.”

The longtime host also publicly questioned the qualifications of his new boss and the CEO, the recordings show.