CBS News boss’s sweary six-word response to 60 Minutes producer after explosive first episode of retooled show
CBS News’s Bari Weiss offered 60 Minutes’ top producer a characteristic no-nonsense response after he expressed pride at their approach to the program during a Sunday night watch party at her Manhattan apartment, according to a report.
Weiss, Executive Producer Nick Bilton, and other CBS staffers were in the midst of taking in the show’s season premiere on Sunday when Bilton suddenly reacted to a statement from one of the subjects interviewed, Puck reported Wednesday.
Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay said, while discussing his approach to the game – and life: ‘You’re either in a storm, you’re comin’ outta one, or you’re gettin’ ready to go back into it.’
‘But how you handle that is the separator,’ he added. ‘So, I wanna be proud of who we’ve become in the midst of the journey.’
Puck’s Dylan Byers framed the tidbit as ‘the grown-up version of it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.’
Bilton told Weiss he felt the same way about the strides 60 Minutes has made since he replaced Tanya Simon in the spring. Weiss was the one to bring him on.
Sources told Byers that the former tech columnist, finding himself inspired, told Weiss that no matter what awaits them ratings- and reception-wise, they could take pride in their work.
‘F**k that,’ Weiss, 42, reportedly replied. ‘I want to win.’
CBS News’s Bari Weiss offered 60 Minutes’ top producer a typical no-nonsense response after he expressed pride at their approach to the program last Sunday, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported this week
The impromptu rallying cry echoed one offered by the Free Press founder to CBS staff during her first editorial call as editor-in-chief back in October, according to a 2025 report from the Independent.
‘Let’s do the f***ing news,’ she said, shortly after airing her desire ‘to win,’ sources told the outlet.
‘I’m not joking,’ an unnamed staffer said. ‘She actually said that.’
The same employee recalled how the remark was met with ‘eye rolls.’ They also claimed Weiss was ‘cosplaying as a broadcast journalist’ at a time where uncertainty surrounding the former New York Times opinion journalist was sky-high.
Both Weiss and Bilton came to CBS with no broadcast experience.
But the season premiere of 60 Minutes appeared to extinguish some of those concerns, at least from a criticism standpoint.
New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin, for instance, celebrated on X after the show aired Sunday: ‘The verdict is in: it’s still “60 Minutes!”‘ as the paper and nearly all of Tinseltown trade publications touted the return.
Brian Steinberg at Variety framed the episode as 60 Minutes ‘put[ting] its most obvious foot forward.’
Nick Bilton, the show’s new executive producer, reportedly told Weiss that no matter what may await them ratings- and reception-wise, they could take pride in their work. He was brought on as a part of a wider overhaul of the program in May
Assessments from Deadline and The Wrap also complimented producers for changing very little of the show’s formula.
The Wrap’s AJ Katz acknowledged the ‘months’ of unrest that have occurred ‘outside the broadcast,’ before ultimately declaring: ‘Sunday night, [60 Minutes] spoke for itself.’
The episode featured an interview with one of the two Air Force pilots shot down over Iran earlier this year, a hidden camera investigation headed by longtime correspondent Lesley Stahl, and the brief interview with McVay.
A Hollywood Reporter headline offered perhaps the harshest take. It branded the episode as ‘bland.’
Chief critic Daniel Fienberg felt it ‘suggest[ed] a limited Bari Weiss effect (So Far).’
Weiss was brought on by then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison, and within months as chief, Weiss saw 60 Minutes ‘as calcified and resistant to change,’ sources told CNN in late May.
That month, Weiss handpicked Bilton to replace longtime producer Simon, while carrying out an array of firings within the newsmagazine as well.
Scott Pelley, one of the show’s longest-serving correspondents, was fired the following week after speaking out about those changes.
The episode also featured an interview with one of the two Air Force pilots shot down over Iran earlier this year and a hidden camera investigation headed by longtime correspondent Lesley Stahl
He accused Weiss of ‘murdering’ 60 Minutes. The show has long enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.
Ellison, the 43-year-old son of conservative billionaire Larry Ellison and a known Donald Trump acquaintance, on-boarded Weiss just weeks after Paramount completed a merger with his former company, Skydance Media.
The merger did not receive federal approval for more than a year beforehand, but was approved shortly after CBS settled a $16 million lawsuit filed against the network by Trump.
Anderson Cooper left the show after more than two decades last May as well, fueling concerns the show would look and feel different in its 59th season.
The show’s next episode will feature the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, Patrick Clancy, showrunners announced Wednesday.
The Times branded the premiere as the beginnings of ‘The Bari Weiss Era.’
The next stage will see Clancy discuss ‘his grief, his memories of his children, and the baseless conspiracy theories that flooded social media since his ex-wife’s murder trial,’ CBS said in a press release. Clancy’s new wife, Dr Rachel Danis, will also join him for the interview, the network announced Thursday.
Ratings for the first episode were low, from a historical perspective.
Both Byers and a source with knowledge on the ratings who spoke to the Daily Mail blamed the dip on recent changes to criteria Nielsen uses to measure total viewers, affecting organizations like the NFL as well.
