“‘60 Minutes’ as the audience has known it no longer exists,” Kroft lamented.

*60 Minutes *veteran Steve Kroft rips ‘disastrous’ firings, slams CBS News for ‘journalistic interference’

"'60 Minutes' as the audience has known it no longer exists," Kroft lamented.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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June 4, 2026 3:53 p.m. ET

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Steve Kroft on '60 Minutes'. Credit:

John Paul Filo/CBS

- *60 Minutes *alum Steve Kroft is slamming the "disastrous" shakeups to the storied TV news magazine under the leadership of Bari Weiss and David Ellison.

- The veteran journalist accused CBS News of "journalistic interference" amid the firings of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Scott Pelley.

- "*60 Minutes* as the audience has known it no longer exists," Kroft argued.

Veteran *60 Minutes* correspondent Steve Kroft isn't holding back his true feelings about the recent shakeups at CBS News.

The 80-year-old journalist whose three-decade tenure on the storied program began in 1989 and lasted until his 2019 retirement, addressed the controversial firings and big changes under the leadership of Bari Weiss during a recent segment on the PBS NewsHour. Slamming the latest developments, Kroft described the situation as "disastrous" for both the show and its audience.

"It began, really, with an interview that Bill Whitaker had done with Kamala Harris, in which CBS was sued... by the Trump administration for what they called an illegal edit," Kroft told reporter Geoff Bennett, referencing CBS' decision to settle a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million over a 2024 *60 Minutes* interview with Harris, his contender in that year's presidential election. "The lawsuit had absolutely no merit… Since then, it's been sort of just one thing after another."

Since February, *60 Minutes *has shed four correspondents — Anderson Cooper, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and most recently, Scott Pelley who was fired by leadership on Tuesday following a heated confrontation with newly appointed *60 Minutes* executive producer Nick Bilton. The network has additionally axed executive producer Tanya Simon and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich. Only three correspondents remain: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim.

Kroft anchoring a Memorial Day Special CBS Radio broadcast in 2013.

John P. Filo/CBS

"I think this is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever," Kroft lamented. "The show is still doing very well. It's the highest-rated news program on television. And it has been that way for more than 50 years. The audience was up about nine percent last year. And why would you mess with that?"

He added, "It's got an audience of about 10 million people, between nine and 10 million people, which is still one of the largest audiences on network television."

Kroft then argued that it was an ominous signal when Weiss "refused to answer any of the questions" that Pelley posed regarding the staffing shakeups, when she was initially confronted.

"[That] leaves you with what's been said by the president and by his staff and by the chairman of the FCC, that they don't like the way CBS has been operated," Kroft said. "They don't like the fact that it's on the air. They would like to see it taken off the air. They've said that a number of times. They would like to see people fired. And that's what's happened."

The *60 Minutes* alum insisted that during his time at the network, he "never had anybody ask to make any kind of insertion or addition to a story to change the tone of it or to change the facts of it." Meanwhile, Pelley has claimed that the new executives "instructed" him to include "unverified" assertions and  "inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story."

Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'.

Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty

Kroft also addressed the turmoil in a profile published Thursday by *New York* magazine, in which he stated, "*60 Minutes* as the audience has known it no longer exists. The firings are too substantial."

He added, "It’s very difficult for me to imagine a world without *60 Minutes,* or a show like *60 Minutes*, which is not afraid to take on the government. You see the timidity all across the broadcast schedule right now. The evening news shows are clearly being very careful about how they approach criticism of the government."

Fired '60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley lashes out at CBS leadership over 'collapse of values at the top'

'60 Minutes' correspondent Steve Kroft 'hated' time on show, 'made a bunch of enemies' when he landed gig

*60 Minutes* has been under intense scrutiny on the heels of Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison inserting Weiss as the new head of CBS News, which has only been amplified by the fact that the parent company is presently seeking approval from Trump regulators to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The recent shakeup has led to speculation that the changes to news programming are an effort to appease the president, with some accusing Weiss of trying to undermine the revered newscast with political bias.

'60 Minutes' promotional art.

The drama reached a climax in late May after Simon, Vega, and Alfonsi were fired, and Bilton, a former *New York Times* technology columnist, was hired to run the show.

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Days later, reports emerged that Pelley had lashed out at Bilton during a staff meeting, accusing Weiss of "murdering 60 Minutes", and saying the new executive producer has "slender qualifications for this job." On Tuesday, Bilton released a letter terminating Pelley from the show, announcing that he and CBS leadership had failed to reach common ground,

“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,” Bilton wrote in a letter that accompanied Pelley's termination. “And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately.”

Pelley fired back with a scathing letter of his own, claiming that "incompetence and unprofessionalism" have "wreaked havoc" on* 60 Minutes *for months.

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