“There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant,” Pelley said of his fellow journalists.

Scott Pelley gets emotional in first interview since 60 Minutes firing: ‘It’s like your spouse being murdered’

"There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are pregnant," Pelley said of his fellow journalists.

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 7, 2026 2:34 p.m. ET

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Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'. Credit:

- Scott Pelley recounts the days leading up to his abrupt firing from *60 Minutes*.

- The journalist, a 37-year veteran of the network, compared the series of firings to watching his family being murdered.

- Pelley also called for CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss to be removed from her leadership position, arguing, "Television's not her thing."

Scott Pelley is ready to unpack his abrupt and tumultuous exit from *60 Minutes*.

Sitting down for his first interview since his firing from the historic CBS News show, Pelley got choked up several times while discussing the events leading up to his dismissal and reflecting on the changes brought by the new leadership of Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton.

"No one saw the Black Thursday massacre coming," Pelley told *The New York Times, *referencing the abrupt ousting of *60 Minutes *executive producer Tanya Simon alongside correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. "This is our entire senior staff. Tanya Simon, our boss, she's the first woman ever to be executive producer of *60 Minutes*. And she concluded this season with a growth in our audience of nine percent, which is unheard-of in broadcast television, and a growth of our online presence of 190 percent. Last season, we had 2.5 billion views. That’s a third of humanity! So we're riding high."

Pelley, a 37-year veteran of the network, pointed out that Simon had been with the program for 25 years and the day prior to her firing, they had attended the Emmy Awards and picked up two trophies.

"Within hours, all of those people have been wiped out, and one-third of our correspondents have been fired," Pelley continued. "At the same moment, we are informed of our new executive producer. His name is Nick Bilton. I'm sure he must be a wonderful man, but no one had ever heard of him. He has zero experience in television news and no experience in management. So imagine how we feel when someone like that comes into a shop like *60 Minutes*."

Joe Pugliese/CBS

Pelley said his reaction to these changes was one of "shock, dismay, impossible to believe, searching desperately for an explanation, knowing that an explanation would be forthcoming and then not seeing that."

He said it was particularly painful to watch colleagues go out like that because in his experience, *60 Minutes* is "a family."

Pelley continued, "We travel together. We dine together. We go into literal combat together."

The veteran journalist then became visibly emotional, pausing to hold back tears before he went on. "My former boss and former producer Bill Owens saved my life in a firefight in Iraq," he recounted. "So, these bonds are pretty tight, and when somebody wipes out, murders, a large number of your family members, people are desperate for some explanation, and as you and I sit here today, there still has been none."

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At another point in the conversation, Pelley teared up while explaining that Simon was told she had to vacate her office by 5 p.m. on the day that she was let go.

"It's like your spouse being murdered," Pelley said. "I don't care about me. It's not about me. I am not emotional about this because I have lost this job. I've done it for a long time. I've had the greatest experiences. But the people I leave behind, treated in this way? That breaks my heart, and it's going to take me a long time to get over it."

*60 Minutes* has been under intense scrutiny on the heels of Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison installing 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. After the firing of Simon, Vega, and Alfonsi, 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 had "slender qualifications for this job." He was subsequently terminated by Bilton.

Asked by *The Times *why he spoke up at that meeting, Pelley said he looked around the room and realized that — in the wake of the firings — he was the most senior staffer in attendance.

Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'.

Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty

"So when I saw Nick Bilton's email and then saw him reading to my brokenhearted people off his phone, I felt that somebody had to stand up not just for the broadcast but for the people," Pelley said, tearing up. "There are people in that room who go to war zones when they are *pregnant*. Newsrooms are sort of like the military or the police or the beautiful people at the FDNY down the street. It is a life-threatening job in many instances. And to have people running CBS News, who don't know that, have never felt that, and don't understand it, is a tragedy."

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Asked if he believes that Weiss should be removed from her leadership position, Pelley did not hesitate.

"Oh, gosh, yes," he replied. "Look, she's a lovely person. And her Free Press organization that she founded has been very successful. But television's not her thing. This is like somebody walking up to me and saying, 'There's a 747, there are 400 people on it, we need you to fly it to Paris.' I'm going to decline because I don't have a clue."

He added, "It would have been so much better if Bari Weiss had been offered this job and said, 'Oh, that's not for me, I don't know how to do that.'"

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