Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat will join CBS News’ “60 Minutes” along with author Sebastian Junger, new CBS News correspondent Trevor Phillips and filmmaker Gianna Toboni, the Paramount Skydance news division announced Tuesday. It’s a move to shake up the look and feel of the venerable news magazine, which has come under intense scrutiny.
Norah O’Donnell, a familiar face to CBS News viewers, will also take on additional duties on the show, according to the series’ new executive producer Nick Bilton, who provided details in a memo to staff.
Douthat, Junger, Phillips and Toboni are “entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences,” Bilton said. Douzat and O’Donnell will serve as correspondents, and three other newcomers will serve as contributors. “They have written books and magazine articles, produced documentaries, TV shows, and podcasts, hosted live events, and built brands on independent platforms.”
The question they now face, of course, is whether the new recruits can keep CBS viewers engaged during the 12- to 13-minute video segments that air on the telecast.
The quartet is intended to replace a group of longtime correspondents who were ousted by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss in order to make the show more interesting to modern viewers. Weiss believes the program urgently needs to reinvent itself and become more relevant to digital and younger viewers. In late May, she replaced the show’s former executive producer Tanya Simon, along with correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and editor-in-chief Dragan Mihailovic. Scott Pelley was sent off immediately after the game against Bilton. Anderson Cooper chose to leave the show earlier this year, ostensibly because he was wary of the direction CBS News was taking under Weiss, an opinion journalist who had sought to give more time to Trump administration officials, provocative speakers and experts.
CBS News put an untested fanzine on the show, along with three veterans: Leslie Stahl, Jon Wertheim, and Bill Whitaker. All three chose to stay despite management watering down the program, apparently with little regard for recent accomplishments. At a time when more TV viewers are streaming from old-school promise TV, the latest season of “60 Minutes” saw a 9% increase in overall viewership.
It remains to be seen whether the new group will be well received by audiences and colleagues. Although Mr. D’Souza and Mr. Phillips have expressed their views in recent reviews and opinion columns, the bulk of “60 Minutes” is intended to feature hard investigative reportage and deep feature journalism. For example, Mr. Phillips, a former British politician known as a champion of free speech, has been accused of Islamophobia for his controversial comments about British Muslims. Douthat opposed abortion and wrote a book about the decline of religion in the United States
Junger and Toboni seem to be leaning more toward the traditional “60 Minutes” side. Mr. Junger, the author of books such as “The Perfect Storm” and “Tribe,” has spent years studying conflict zones and the impact that participating in wars has on soldiers. Toboni has worked on dozens of documentaries that have aired on HBO, Showtime, and VICE. Among the topics she has covered are political corruption in Mexico and unnecessary gynecological surgeries on immigrant women in ICE custody.
New groups come together under pressure. The 59th season of “60 Minutes” is scheduled to begin on September 13th. Correspondents usually try to save up their pieces before going on vacation in July. However, the show’s sudden overhaul reduced the number of staff and producers developing stories and segments.
Bilton has other challenges as well. Morale in the program was low. Paramount’s former executives turned the program into a bargaining chip with the Trump administration, using the $16 million settlement to end what many legal circles considered a flimsy lawsuit related to Whitaker’s pre-Election Day meeting with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount entered into the deal as it seeks to complete its sale to the network’s current owner, Skydance. Paramount’s capitulation spurred the resignation of two top executives at CBS News, former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and former chief executive of CBS’ news, broadcast and syndication operations, Wendy McMahon.
Producers are “self-censoring” themselves, avoiding ideas or topics that might provoke backlash from Wyeth or the company, according to people familiar with CBS News. Producers are internally cowering after the show has been undermined by media companies who have consistently refused to publicly endorse it.
Millions of dollars are at risk. The newsmagazine generated $67 million to $69 million in ad revenue in both 2024 and 2025, according to iSpot data, and last year had the 11th-highest ad revenue of all CBS programming. “60 Minutes” is a reliable perch for healthcare and pharmaceuticals, one of the network’s top sponsored categories, counting pharmaceuticals such as Rinvoq, Clairtin, Skyrizi and Vabysmo among its top advertisers in 2026.
Some CBS News staffers think “60 Minutes” needs to change. Some feel the show has become too classy and needs more on-screen drama from former correspondent Mike Wallace. Some noticed the schadenfreude when they learned in February that the news magazine would be pulled from its separate headquarters on West 57th Street and placed in an office across the street from the rest of the news division’s editors, producers and reporters. When it comes to program expansion, previous attempts haven’t lasted as long as the flagship. Efforts to expand “60 Minutes” to two hours on Wednesdays, sports-themed Showtime productions and digital spinoffs with short stories for streaming have not proven long-lasting.
Still, there are just as many who believe that the “60” overhaul is motivated by a lackluster Paramount management team entwined with politicians and establishment figures.
If Bilton and Weiss can reinvigorate the remaining staff, expand the “60 Minutes” portfolio, and maintain the quality and ratings of the original TV show, they will have accomplished quite a feat. Weiss is still trying to make his mark. Her overhaul of “CBS Evening News” ushered in an eventful new era for the distinctive evening newscast. “CBS Mornings” viewership declined and a series of hour-long newsmaker conversations called “Things That Matter” proved too sporadic to gain any real traction.
New hires have been announced, and Bilton’s “60 Minutes” era faces an interesting countdown between now and September.
