Scott Pelley is gone. But correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim are staying put at 60 Minutes, at least for now. In a joint memo to staff, the three chalked up their decision to one main reason: "We don't want to see 60 Minutes die," reports CNN. The three made clear they are not happy with the spate of recent firings under Bari Weiss and new executive producer Nick Bilton, saying those fired were treated "shabbily" and with "indecency," per the Washington Post. "Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships."
Stahl tells the New York Times that the three correspondents decided to stay after multiple calls with each other, adding that they are giving Bilton a chance to prove that his promise to preserve the show's integrity is legit. "We're more or less taking his word for it," she says. "But if what he was talking about in his statement doesn't work, we're going to leave."
Their memo, in which the three promise to "stay and fight," offers a rare moment of stability for the show after near-constant turbulence for weeks. Whether the stability lasts is the question. At Puck, Matthew Belloni predicts it's only a matter of time before Paramount CEO David Ellison must intervene with Weiss if the show is to survive long term. "Basically, 60 Minutes is currently a strong enough brand to endure this disruption, but it has five to seven years tops before the linear TV economics melt to the point where the show will need to be pared way back or disappear altogether… unless it can be reinvented into something that plays in an on-demand streaming environment."
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