Prior to Bilton’s appointment, Simon served as executive producer since July 2025, taking the role after Bill Owen’s sudden exit from the program in April 2025, citing a loss of journalistic independence as the reason for his departure.
In the same note announcing Bilton’s hire, Weiss and Cibrowski addressed Simon’s departure, saying she has “dedicated more than three decades to 60 Minutes, and she has served the institution with enormous care, professionalism, and devotion.”
In a separate note to her 60 Minutes colleagues, Simon said, “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.”
Here’s Tanya Simon’s note to staff on her exit from 60 Minutes. pic.twitter.com/ICnYOoD2qu
— Ted Johnson (@tedstew) May 28, 2026
Reports have also indicated that, in addition to Simon’s departure, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, producer Guy Campanile, and correspondent Cecilia Vega have also been let go, and the network has officially parted ways with Sharyn Alfonsi.
Alfonsi’s departure was no surprise, as she was at the center of the controversy revolving the shelving of the 60 Minutes piece on the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to the maximum security prison CECOT in El Salvador back in December.
At the time, she called out Weiss, and, in a statement on Wednesday, said her departure from 60 Minutes was a “deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting, and it sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”
In addition to those exits, Anderson Cooper departed from the program nearly two weeks ago.
Bilton’s appointment to lead 60 Minutes could rankle some within the network, as he is an outsider with minimal television experience tasked with steering the award-winning program into the future, which somewhat parallels Weiss’s appointment when she joined CBS News in October 2025.
All of this is happening as the news show on Wednesday night was the recipient of two Emmy Awards at the 47th annual News & Documentary Emmys ceremony. Scott Pelley’s feature on the War in Gaza took home the Emmy for Outstanding Hard News Report, and the news program won another Emmy for Outstanding Extended Breaking News Coverage on the California fires.
