Sharyn Alfonsi, a veteran correspondent for the venerable news magazine 60 Minutes since 2015, said Wednesday that she believes CBS News removed her from the show because she took issue with news editor Bari Weiss’ handling of Alfonsi’s reporting on how the United States deported a Venezuelan man to a harsh prison in El Salvador.
Alfonsi remains a CBS News employee, but her contract with “60 Minutes” expired earlier this month, according to two people familiar with the situation. According to these sources, CBS News executives made no effort to contact her representatives at major talent agency UTA to renew her contract.
CBS News declined to request comment from executives. “Repeated attempts by my representatives to establish a path forward have been met with utter silence from network executives,” Alfonsi said in a statement. “The message could not be clearer: My time on 60 Minutes is clearly over.”
She said her departure from the show was a “deliberate choice to punish journalists who refused to clean up factually accurate reporting and sends a chilling message to newsrooms as a whole.”
Mr. Alfonsi will continue to receive a salary as an at-will employee from CBS News, one of the people said, but believes he will still be unable to do the work that 60 Minutes correspondents will do after the show’s regular season ends, such as updating productions for summer broadcasts and starting reporting on stories for next season, one of the people said. According to this person, Alfonsi’s producer appears to have been reassigned.
Her departure from the show was announced on a day that would normally be used as a celebration by CBS News and other mainstream news organizations. The 47th News & Documentary Emmy Awards are scheduled to be held Wednesday night in New York.
The imbroglio is yet another controversy early in the tenure of Weiss, who took over as editorial leader of CBS News last year and revealed a remarkable lack of knowledge about how to maintain a television program. Weiss announced earlier this year that she plans to shine a new spotlight on experts on specific topics and encourage provocative conversations with reporters, but many of her efforts have been seen as giving airtime to Trump administration officials and conservative allies.
Meanwhile, under her wing, ratings for CBS News’ two flagship programs, “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Morning,” have slumped, falling further behind rival programs at ABC News and NBC News.
Weiss wants to overhaul “60 Minutes,” and people familiar with the show have suggested she wants to break down some of the walls that have long separated the show from the rest of CBS News. In recent weeks, CBS News correspondents like Major Garrett have been getting time on the show, and Norah O’Donnell has also appeared.
There’s also speculation that other longtime “60 Minutes” staffers may be cut. Tanya Simon, who was named executive producer of the series last year, could be removed from her role later this year if CBS News executives refuse to renew her one-year contract, according to three people familiar with the matter. Such speculation raises the prospect that for the first time in the show’s history, CBS News managers may put an outsider in charge of “60 Minutes,” someone with no connection to the show.
At issue in the argument between Alfoncia and Weiss was a story in late 2025 about immigrants being sent to harsh imprisonment in El Salvador by the United States. Weiss ordered the study to be put on hold after it had already been publicly promoted and sought comment from Trump officials after Alfonsi had already made efforts. The move invited new scrutiny as it appeared to be an attempt to appease the Trump administration over a story officials may not like. The segment appeared during a January 2026 telecast, with Weiss admitting that her unfamiliarity with some of the news organization’s processes led to unwanted attention.
“60 Minutes” has been under intense scrutiny for months. The show became a bargaining chip between Paramount’s former executives and the Trump administration, using a $16 million settlement against President Donald Trump to end what many legal circles considered a flimsy lawsuit related to a pre-Voting Day interview between “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker and former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount has entered into a deal to finalize the sale to Skydance.
As a result, two senior executives at CBS News — Mr. Owens, a former executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and Wendy McMahon, a former CEO of CBS News, local stations and syndication — suggested in statements that they could no longer resist corporate mandates they felt would weaken the newsroom. Both left CBS News last year.
Most recently, longtime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced that he would be leaving the show in February. During his last appearance on “60 Minutes,” Cooper seemed to warn about the implications of remaking “60.” “Things can always evolve and change, and I think that’s great, and things should evolve and change, but I want the core of 60 Minutes to always remain,” Anderson said in an address to viewers. “I think the independence of 60 Minutes was important.”
