CBS News Names New 60 Minutes Executive Producer Amid Trump Pressure

Photo provided by CBS News.

CBS News announced on Thursday that Tanya Simon had been named the new executive producer of 60 Minutes. She has 25 years of experience with the show and had been serving as the interim executive producer since April when her predecessor, Bill Owens, resigned in protest amid the network’s legal battles with President Donald Trump.

Simon first started at CBS News in 1996 as a researcher for 48 Hours, before being promoted to associate producer and then producer, and moving on to 60 Minutes in 2000. Her years of experience with 60 Minutes include serving as a senior producer who oversaw digital content for 60MinutesOvertime.com and production of 60 Minutes Sports, a monthly program for Showtime, and then executive editor for six seasons.

According to a press release from the network, Simon’s contributions to 60 Minutes have “earned virtually every major broadcast honor, including multiple Emmy Awards, the Peabody and the DuPont-Columbia Award”:

Simon has been contributing to 60 MINUTES for most of her career, playing key roles in some of the broadcast’s highest-profile investigations, features and profiles. She joined the staff in 2000, working with correspondent Ed Bradley on a variety of reports including the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Duke University lacrosse rape case, and a rare interview with Bob Dylan. Simon went on to produce for nearly all the 60 MINUTES correspondents over the next decade, including Steve Kroft, Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Anderson Cooper, and Bob Simon, her father. During that time, she produced news-making interviews with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and hero pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, as well as profiles of rapper Eminem and Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Shaun White. She reported extensively on Boston Irish mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, including his capture after 16 years on the run, and on Lance Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancing drugs to win bicycle races.

“It is a privilege to lead 60 Minutes and its formidable team of journalists,” Simon said. “60 is in a class of its own, upholding a legacy of extraordinary and thought-provoking journalism for more than half a century. I’m deeply committed to this level of excellence and I look forward to delivering an exciting season of signature 60 stories that cover a wide range of subjects for a broad audience and engage viewers with their world.”

“Tanya Simon understands what makes 60 Minutes tick. She is an innovative leader, an exceptional producer, and someone who knows how to inspire people,” said Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News. “Tanya knows that the success of today’s 60 Minutes depends on delivering a weekly mix of the most informative, impactful and entertaining stories and investigative journalism from around the world. This is the true essence and foundation of 60 Minutes.”

The news comes after months of upheaval for the long-running news program. 60 Minutes launched in 1968 and Simon will be only its fourth executive producer. Many of the show’s hosts, correspondents, producers, and other staff can count their tenure in decades.

But the looming merger between CBS parent company Paramount and Skydance Media has sent tremors through the network hallways and taken on larger political implications in the wake of Trump’s re-election, due to his vociferous criticism of 60 Minutes and CBS News programs and reporters — not to mention the lawsuit he filed complaining about how a 60 Minutes interview of then-Vice President Kamala Harris was edited.

Trump’s ire with the network and the role his Federal Communications Commission appointee will play in approving the merger have continued to loom over strategic decisions at CBS, with Simon’s predecessor Bill Owens resigning in protest, other 60 Minutes reporters publicly lambasting their employer, and longtime network veterans wondering if programs like 60 Minutes will even survive post-merger.

In April, Owens sent a memo to 60 Minutes staff saying that he was leaving because “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.” Numerous media observers assessed Owens’ resignation and the circumstances around it as a “dangerous moment” for media outlets battling to preserve their “journalistic independence.”

At the beginning of this month, Paramount announced it had agreed to settle the lawsuit with Trump for $16 million.

Many legal experts had criticized the lawsuit as weak and expected CBS would be able make a strong defense argument under the First Amendment, and political considerations are widely viewed as playing a key role in the decision to settle.

Still, the news of Simon’s promotion should come as a relief for 60 Minutes staffers. Last month, Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter reported that all seven of the show’s correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Bill Whitaker, Anderson Cooper, Sharyn Alfonsi, Jon Wertheim, and Cecilia Vega — were “rallying around” Simon had sent a letter to Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks “making it clear” to network brass that “she’s their choice.”

“The next EP has to be Tanya,” an anonymous 60 Minutes staffer said. “There will be a revolt if it’s not her.”