The contentious firing came after several shake-ups under recently appointed CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

Jimmy Kimmel slams ‘Trump suck-ups’ at CBS for ‘cowardly’ Scott Pelley firing from 60 Minutes

The contentious firing came after several shake-ups under recently appointed CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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June 4, 2026 10:47 a.m. ET

Jimmy Kimmel. Credit:

Disney/Randy Holmes

- Jimmy Kimmel has called out CBS in support of Scott Pelley after his firing from *60 Minutes*.

- “The president, of course, applauded this cowardly decision,” Kimmel told his audience. “He said Scott Pelley is part of a gang of crooked stupid people different from the gang he’s part of.”

- Pelley was fired from *60 Minutes *following a tense meeting with new executive producer Nick Bilton.

Jimmy Kimmel is joining the chorus of voices standing behind Scott Pelley after he was fired from *60 Minutes*.

During Wednesday's episode of *Jimmy Kimmel Live**,* the comedian addressed the contentious firing of the veteran journalist after Pelley accused newly appointed CBS News boss Bari Weiss of "murdering" the newsmagazine program in a staff meeting on Monday, which resulted in his ousting on Tuesday evening.

"Last night, the Trump suck-ups at CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley, from his job at *60 Minutes*," Kimmel began during his monologue, "because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that's been the gold standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years."

Kimmel quipped that Pelley "had had enough after the clowns" who joined the program as executives after the firing of executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and executive producer Tanya Simon. Correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper, meanwhile, have all departed or been fired.

Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'.

John Paul Filo/CBS

Filmmaker and former tech journalist Nick Bilton, a man Kimmel described as "a guy who has no experience in TV news," was hired to replace Simon as executive producer.

"And that was it for Scott Pelley," Kimmel quipped. "He said the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. And he let him have it in a staff meeting right to the new guy's face. So last night they fired him."

With Pelley's exit, Kimmel joked that *60 Minutes* will be replaced by "new episodes of *Reporters Unleashed*."

"The president, of course, applauded this cowardly decision," Kimmel continued. "He said Scott Pelley is part of a gang of crooked stupid people different from the gang of crooked stupid people he's a part of."

As reported by *The New York Times** *and Status*, *Pelley — who had worked on the show since 2004 — voiced his disagreement with the firing of several colleagues during a staff meeting set to introduce Bilton to the rest of the team.

Pelley's tirade began after Bilton declared that Weiss "loves this institution" and "loves *60 Minutes*." He reportedly said that Weiss, who was absent from the meeting, had "no qualifications for her job," and added that Bilton had "slender qualifications for this job."

He continued, "The changes that she's made at the *Evening News* have been catastrophic, so why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?"

The next day, Bilton fired Pelley in a letter obtained by **. "Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear," it read. "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."

Scott Pelley; Bari Weiss.

Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty; Mike Vitelli/BFA.com/Shutterstock

In the letter, Bilton also accused Pelley of having "hijacked" the meeting in order to "disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt."

In audio obtained by *The Washington Post**, *Weiss said she had attempted to "find a way back" with Pelley, but ultimately "had to part ways."

However, as reported by *The New York Times' *Ben Mullin in a post on X, Pelley denied the content of Weiss' audio recording transcript entirely. "Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true," he said bluntly. "In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to 'find a way back,' as Weiss said in the editorial meeting. At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution."

He continued, "Weiss and [president and executive editor of CBS News] Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. 'Firing' was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested a way back.' To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it."

Tony Dokoupil honors '60 Minutes' anchor Scott Pelley, fired by new CBS News execs, on 'CBS Evening News'

Rachel Maddow hopes Scott Pelley joins MS Now after '60 Minutes' firing

Since Pelley's firing, his peers have come out with statements standing up for the journalist and commending him for his time on the show.

Rachel Maddow spoke out in support of Pelley, saying, "There's nothing else going on at CBS News other than what we can see is happening at CBS News. And I don't know where Scott Pelley will land. Frankly, I hope he lands right here. I hope he's on TV tomorrow."

"I hope that everybody in journalism and everybody who values a free press figures out ways to outmaneuver the people who are trying to take the free press from us," concluded Maddow on MS Now.

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*CBS Evening News *anchor Tony Dokoupil also paid tribute to Pelley on Wednesday's broadcast of the daily news program, saying: "[Pelley] believed freedom of the press, to quote [James Madison], was 'the right that guaranteed all the others.' And the stakes are always that high in that, if you'd made it to CBS News, you were among the best in the world. He worked every single day to live up to that standard."

Watch Kimmel slam CBS during Wednesday's monologue above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Talk”