The MAGA-friendly bosses at CBS News are running a bizarre cosplay experiment as they try to plug a talent gap at the network’s flagship news show, 60 Minutes.
Status reports that the newsmagazine is rushing to recruit new talent after the high-profile departure of Anderson Cooper and the firing of correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and Scott Pelley, as well as executive producer Tanya Simon.
It said that Editor in Chief Bari Weiss, and Nick Bilton, the tech journalist she appointed as executive producer at 60 Minutes, were making applicants take screen tests, which several veteran TV executives described as “odd” since anyone up for a role on the show should already have an established body of work available to view.
A screen test would also offer no particular insight into a candidate’s investigative reporting skills.
Status also stated that as part of the tests for potential new 60 Minutes talent, mock interviews have been conducted, with one person in the exercise playing Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned associate of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The publication said Weiss has “long wanted to secure an interview with Maxwell,” a fact she stated in a Hollywood Reporter profile earlier this year.
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News and the White House for comment.
The clock is ticking for the CBS bosses: 60 Minutes is scheduled to return to air on Sunday Sept. 13 for what will be its 59th season.
Status reports that CBS News correspondents including Norah O’Donnell, whom President Donald Trump called “terrible” after she asked him about Epstein during an interview in May, and Matt Gutman may be used to fill talent gaps.
There are also reports the new-look 60 Minutes may bring back “hidden camera-style investigative pieces,” which have fallen out of favor because of ethical concerns.
The publication also cites sources who claim Bilton is facing a “Herculean effort” to assign enough stories over the coming weeks to be ready for the 60 Minutes return.
“People on the show and those associated with it believe Bilton is deeply underwater, though he has expressed confidence in his ability to get the newsmagazine to air this fall,” Status said.
The publication said that Bilton does have designs on securing Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a sit-down interview.
The publication also reported Bilton made a strategic visit last week to the White House to potentially secure a pipeline to MAGA talent for 60 Minutes.
Bilton, who has no previous experience in broadcast news, is a former tech columnist turned documentary producer. He was hired by Weiss as part of a MAGA-friendly overhaul of the iconic TV staple, which has been in Trump’s sights.
Bilton visited the White House last Thursday for an “off-the-record” meeting with Trump’s communications team while he was in Washington for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday.
Status claims that while some CBS News staff thought Bilton was looking to lock in an interview with the president, he “simply sought to establish a relationship” with the people who will “ultimately decide whether to grant his team access” to the administration in the future.
Last week, Vega detailed how the new bosses at CBS News attempted to interfere in her reporting.
That included being encouraged to include footage of protesters violently attacking people in the streets, who the demonstrators believed were plain-clothed ICE officers, in a report following the fatal shooting of citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during ICE protests in Minnesota in January.
Vega noted that things “started to change when new people started showing up in the screenings and giving their feedback on pieces,” and strongly suggested she believed that Weiss was driving the requests to change 60 Minutes content.
“Never in my career until now have I felt that those edits, those suggestions, came from a place of misinformation or politics,” Vega said. “That’s the difference.”
