When Nick Bilton convened his first staff meeting at the helm of "60 Minutes" last week, he walked into a newsroom already shaken by a succession of abrupt personnel moves. His predecessor had been dismissed days earlier and several correspondents had either departed or been encouraged to leave. In that initial gathering Bilton brought with him Kelly Funke, a television production consultant he engaged to help guide his integration into the program, according to three current staff members who spoke on condition of anonymity because they worried about losing their jobs.
Staffers described Funke's remit in different terms. One current employee said Funke was hired to "fix the trust" with staff, while another said she has been functioning as Bilton's "chief of staff." The hire of Funke had not been reported previously. She has more than a decade of experience in television production.
The timing of Bilton's appointments is consistent with a broader management overhaul at CBS News that began after David Ellison acquired Paramount in August. Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison and a notable backer of former President Donald Trump, installed Bari Weiss to run CBS News. Sources indicate that Ellison could soon control CNN if his bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery proceeds past regulatory review.
Bilton, Weiss, Funke and CBS News declined to comment.
One person familiar with Funke's hiring said she is on a 90-day contract with an option to renew, a detail that suggests Bilton anticipated obstacles integrating into a newsroom that has expressed discontent with the new leadership. "I just think Nick vastly underestimated just how bad it was," one staff member said.
Tensions in the newsroom surfaced publicly in a June 1 meeting when correspondent Scott Pelley confronted Bilton. A staff member who attended the meeting recounted Pelley's remark: "I find it impossible to imagine that you would take this job knowing that you would never be welcome here." Pelley was dismissed by the network following that meeting. According to the same staff member, Pelley also criticized leadership and accused Bari Weiss of "murdering" the show during the discussion.
Funke has been active in arranging meetings for Bilton with "60 Minutes" personnel and meeting with assistants and producers to help clarify the newsroom's structure, the staff member said. Some colleagues have questioned Funke's credentials because she lacks traditional journalism experience, though another current employee noted that she has been making efforts to learn the newsroom's workings.
Bilton has also brought aboard Nick De Lucca, 24, who introduced himself to staff as "Nick 2.0," according to a person familiar with the matter. De Lucca received the title "operations manager," a role that typically focuses on logistics. His LinkedIn profile lists him as an associate producer at Bilton's production company since 2024. De Lucca did not respond to a request for comment.
The hires come as Funke shadows Bilton - who previously contributed to Vanity Fair and has worked as a documentary filmmaker - making him the first person from outside traditional television news to lead the long-running program.
Last month saw additional senior exits at the program. On May 28, CBS removed executive producer Tanya Simon, longtime producer Draggan Mihailovich, and correspondent Cecilia Vega from their roles. A day earlier the network declined to renew the contract of correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who had clashed with Bari Weiss over a December report on a Salvadoran prison. Network leadership did not offer an explanation for those firings.
A CBS spokesperson said the network could not discuss personnel matters for legal and other reasons.
Despite the internal turbulence, "60 Minutes" concluded its most recent season as the top-ranked news program, posting a 9% increase in TV audience year-over-year, according to Nielsen. The program's continued audience growth underscores its importance to the network even as leadership changes unfold.
Bilton told employees in an internal message that he had made "repeated attempts" to speak directly with Pelley before the dismissal and had sought to "find common ground," but that Pelley chose not to engage, according to an email seen by Reuters. In an interview with The New York Times following his departure, Pelley accused Weiss of applying a "thumb on the scale" for former President Donald Trump's version of news events.
The CBS spokesperson pushed back on that characterization, saying Weiss' feedback on the story referenced by Pelley "had no political motivation" and was proposed "solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible."
Bilton sought to reassure staff about the show's editorial autonomy in an internal message that emphasized the program's "journalistic independence." David Ellison reportedly reiterated similar assurances in a private call with correspondent Lesley Stahl, according to the Times. Stahl relayed details of that call to colleagues at a Monday gathering intended to boost morale. Employees expressed mixed reactions to Ellison's comments, with several noting that Ellison had visited the program after acquiring Paramount and had made comparable commitments previously.
As part of the program's recent legal and corporate history, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump argued presented a distorted portrayal of his rival. The Federal Communications Commission has stated that the settlement and regulatory review of the acquisition are unrelated.
The present period of rapid staffing changes, external consultancy, and management turnover leaves several open questions about how the newsroom will reestablish internal cohesion and protect its editorial processes. Bilton's reliance on short-term contractual support and a small team of trusted aides underscores both the scale of the task and the degree of uncertainty inside one of television news' highest-profile programs.