PHILADELPHIA — "60 Minutes" is used to covering the news. Now, it’s the top story.

Scott Pelley, one of the show’s lead correspondents, was fired by CBS News on Tuesday following a heated exchange with new "60 Minutes" executive producer Nick Bilton during a staff meeting Monday.

In a statement posted on Instagram, Pelley accused management at CBS News — now run by former New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss — of trying to force him “to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and to include “assertions that are unverified.”

“The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable,” Pelley said. “The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”

CBS News did not respond to a request for comment.

In a termination notice sent to Pelley obtained by The Inquirer, Bilton accused Pelley of carrying out an “ambush” in front of staffers in an attempt to “disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.”

Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, defended the move in a morning call with staffers Wednesday, according to multiple reports, saying it was “the path that he chose” and claimed that Pelley’s comments lacked the “trust and mutual respect” the newsroom was built on.

Pelley, who spent 37 years at CBS News, is the fourth correspondent to leave in recent weeks. Weiss has also swiftly replaced the show’s leadership team and recently installed Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker with no TV news experience, as the top producer.

It’s a lot of change for a beloved brand that just finished its 58th season as the nation’s most-watched news program, averaging 9.1 million viewers an episode, according to Nielsen. Ratings were up 9% compared to last year, though part of that is due to an adjustment by Nielsen on how it counts viewers.

Bilton said he was brought in to make changes before the show’s ratings decline.

“It’s still the No. 1 news broadcast in America. But history tells you disruption doesn’t happen immediately when new technology comes along — it’s usually a few years later,” Bilton told CNBC. “We’re on the precipice of this happening to broadcast TV.”

Which ’60 Minutes’ correspondents have been fired or left?

Pelley is just the latest high-profile exit.

Longtime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced his departure from the show last month after 20 years, offering a warning to the network during his final appearance.

“I hope '60 Minutes' remains '60 Minutes,'” Cooper said, a statement that reportedly blindsided Weiss.

Sharyn Alfonsi, who just finished her 11th season with "60 Minutes," was fired last week after a dispute with management stemming from a segment about the notorious maximum security CECOT prison in El Salvador housing immigrants deported by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“Fearless, independent reporting has always been the defining standard at 60 Minutes,” Alfonsi said in a statement. “Today, CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it.”

CBS also fired Cecilia Vega, the show’s first Latina correspondent, executive producer Tanya Simon, veteran executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and senior producer Matthew Polevoy.

Vega echoed Pelley’s remarks in a statement, claiming “in recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories.”

So who is left at ’60 Minutes'?

So who’s left? Just three full-time correspondents.

The most well-known among them is Lesley Stahl, who has been with "60 Minutes" for 35 years. She has won numerous awards and interviewed countless celebrities, including Trump, but folks in Philly might remember her heated 2011 sit-down with then-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Stahl hasn’t spoken out like Pelley, but she was reportedly upset when Weiss pushed her aside to hand a high-profile interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to CBS News correspondent Major Garrett, who doesn’t work on "60 Minutes."

Bill Whitaker also remains after finishing his 11th season, as does Jon Wertheim, who joined "60 Minutes" in 2017. There’s also contributing correspondent Norah O’Donnell, the former anchor of the "CBS Evening News."

Why is there so much turmoil at ’60 Minutes'?

The moves aren’t happening in a vacuum.

CBS and its former parent company, Paramount, were purchased by Skydance in 2024, forming a new company — the Paramount Skydance Corp. David Ellison, the company’s CEO and the son of Trump-supporting billionaire Larry Ellison, reportedly held a dinner party honoring the president but insisted on CNBC last month that “editorial independence will absolutely be maintained” at CBS News.

“We want to be in the trust business,” Ellison said.

Pelley accused Ellison of casting the importance of "60 Minutes" aside, “apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

Pelley’s firing comes less than two weeks after Stephen Colbert hosted the final episode of "The Late Show," which CBS canceled. Colbert was an outspoken critic of Trump, but the network claimed the show was losing $40 million a year.

Like Colbert, "60 Minutes" has also been a Trump target. As the company was seeking federal approval of its merger, Paramount agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle a lawsuit over the editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that aired during the 2024 election. Trump had sought $20 billion in damages.

These moves also come as Ellison and Paramount Skydance are seeking final approval from the Trump administration on a $111 billion deal to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

When does the next season of ’60 Minutes’ start?

"60 Minutes" ended its 58th season May 17, but the show has been renewed and will be back with new episodes in September.

It remains to be seen who will be reporting out its stories.

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