Guy Campanile, a former managing editor of the long‑running CBS News program 60 Minutes, told The Hollywood Reporter that he was fired in May along with several colleagues, including Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. The 59th season of the show began on September 13, the same week that the network introduced a new slate of talent under Editor‑in‑Chief Bari Weiss, who joined CBS News in October after Skydance acquired Paramount.
Campanile said the first two episodes of the new season have not differed markedly from previous seasons, despite Weiss’s call for a ‘new approach’. He noted that while the executive producer had a notebook full of ideas and the broadcast was described as a melting ice cube that needed change, the shape and form of the show had remained largely the same.
He criticized specific segments, including a story on a U.S. Air Force officer whose plane was shot down over Iran. Campanile said the interview was appropriate but the report should have examined the broader course of the war, noting that the piece focused on the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than the conduct and status of the conflict. He also called a segment on Patrick Clancy, ex‑husband of the woman who killed her children, ‘a little tabloid‑y’ and lacking the depth viewers expect from 60 Minutes.
The season’s premiere drew about 7.9 million viewers, the smallest opening in at least a quarter‑century, down from roughly 10 million for last year’s opener, according to Nielsen data cited by The New York Times. CBS said the premiere was the week’s number one non‑sports primetime program among adult viewers and that the show generated 116.7 million video views across social platforms. Weiss has defended the changes, stating that what critics call ‘editorial interference’ is simply the role of an editor‑in‑chief.
