The remaining three correspondents at “60 Minutes” huddled this week to discuss their futures following the firing of Scott Pelley, according to a report, as former star Steve Kroft warned that the iconic newsmagazine “no longer exists” in the form viewers have known for decades.
Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim met on Wednesday for more than an hour amid growing turmoil at CBS News following Pelley’s ouster and the sweeping shakeup orchestrated by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, the Status newsletter reported on Thursday.
The meeting came just hours after The Post reported that CBS insiders believed Whitaker and Stahl could be the next high-profile departures from the program.
“I think Bill is next,” one source close to the network told The Post.
“Lesley is keeping quiet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she left,” the source added.
Another insider told The Post: “Lesley and Bill will be behind him,” referring to Pelley.
The stakes are especially high given the stature of the three remaining correspondents.
Stahl, 84, has been a fixture on “60 Minutes” since 1991 and is one of the longest-serving journalists in the program’s history.
Whitaker, 74, joined the broadcast in 2014 and recently completed his 11th season on the newsmagazine.
Wertheim, 56, is the youngest of the trio and joined “60 Minutes” in 2017 after building a reputation as one of the country’s leading sports journalists.
The uncertainty surrounding the trio comes as Kroft, who spent decades as a correspondent on “60 Minutes” before retiring in 2019, delivered his own blistering assessment of the state of the program.
“I think basically ’60 Minutes,’ as the audience has known it, no longer exists,” Kroft told New York Magazine.
“The firings are too substantial.”
Kroft said the departures of Pelley, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon and several senior producers had fundamentally altered the DNA of the show.
“All of the people involved are very good journalists, and the new management, Bari Weiss and David Ellison, have made it clear they want to go to a completely different format, model, call it what you want,” Kroft said.
“They thought that what 60 Minutes was doing had become outdated and old and musty and needed to be changed, in spite of the fact that the audience has gone up 9 percent in the last year.”
Kroft, who recently told podcaster Bill O’Reilly that he “hated” working at “60 Minutes” due to its lack of “civility” and it being a “snake pit,” also questioned whether the program would be able to maintain its identity when it returns in the fall.
“It seems almost impossible for me to imagine what kind of a show they can put on in September,” he said.
The latest signs of unrest come after Pelley was fired following a public clash with newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton.
Since his departure, Pelley has accused CBS News management of trying to inject “falsehoods and bias” into reporting, while Vega has alleged “censorship” and Alfonsi has warned that “the wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down.”
CBS News has denied the allegations.
“There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss,” a CBS News spokesperson told Status.
“The only ‘interference’ is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens in every newsroom.”
A CBS News spokesperson declined to directly address Status’s report about the meeting between Whitaker, Stahl and Wertheim or Kroft’s claim that the “60 Minutes” viewers have known for decades “no longer exists.”
Instead, the spokesperson pointed The Post to previous statements from Bilton, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski emphasizing that management’s goal is to preserve the franchise while modernizing it.
“The fact that this show has remained a fixed point in a culture is part of why this show still matters as much as it does,” Bilton wrote in a recent note to staff.
“I don’t want to lose that.”
Weiss and Cibrowski similarly argued that the network’s recent changes are designed to strengthen the newsmagazine rather than abandon its traditions.
“Our responsibility is to preserve that legacy and vital mission by building a show that thrives in the 21st century,” they wrote.
“That requires a new approach: expanding 60 Minutes beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined 60 Minutes at its best.”
The spokesperson also pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal report that said Cibrowski opened a meeting with Pelley before his firing by telling the veteran correspondent that CBS leadership hoped to discuss “how to reach a point of civility and go forward.”
The Post has sought comment from Wertheim, Whitaker and Stahl.
