TV Shows
CBS Waiting to See If ‘60 Minutes’ Audience ‘Trusts’ What Network Has ‘Become’ Amid Changes
60 Minutes will return to CBS for its 59th season on Sunday, September 13, but only time will tell if audiences will continue to tune in amid the network’s ongoing changes.
A Thursday, September 10, report in journalist Rob Shuter‘s Naughty But Nice Substack claimed that those behind the scenes at the network are eagerly awaiting how the premiere will play out following the first Sunday NFL football games of the season.
“CBS needs to know whether viewers believe this is still fiercely independent journalism — or something politically different,” said a network insider.
60 Minutes will feature new correspondents and other changes under the new leadership of executive producer Nick Bilton.
“Over the summer, we’ve made changes to every aspect of the broadcast to make it stronger,” Bilton said in an interview with The New York Times. “While each of those changes represents a slight departure from the way it’s been done in the past, it will make for a new approach to 60 Minutes in its totality.”
The shift is part of an ongoing shakeup led by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, whose big changes have made headlines since she was appointed in October 2025.
“The real question isn’t whether the NFL can deliver 10 million people,” the network insider said. “It’s whether the traditional 60 Minutes audience trusts what CBS has become. You can change the correspondents. Changing the perceived politics of the program is much more dangerous.”
Former 60 Minutes managing editor Guy Campanile, who was fired in May, said in a Facebook post seen by The Guardian that he and his colleagues were ousted because they “would not compromise our principles or reputations by jamming unverifiable notions or White House talking points into our reporting.”
According to another of Shuter’s sources, “If viewers decide the new owners have changed the politics, no NFL lead-in can fix that.”
With 60 Minutes, the source added, “That trust is the entire franchise.”
