Inside the Power Struggle Shaking ’60 Minutes’ to Its Core: Staffers Warn Shari Redstone to Step Back or Risk It All

When longtime “60 Minutes” boss Bill Owens abruptly announced his exit this week, it wasn’t just another shake-up at CBS — it was a full-blown SOS. And the target of that distress signal is clear: Shari Redstone.

Behind the scenes, panic has been brewing for months. Sources inside “60 Minutes” say Redstone — Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder — has been tightening her grip on the legendary newsmagazine. Her growing interest comes at a volatile moment, as she maneuvers to sell off the Paramount empire to David Ellison’s Skydance Media and preserve her family’s fading media fortune.

But for the fiercely independent team at “60 Minutes,” Redstone’s looming presence isn’t just unwelcome — it’s a threat to everything the show stands for.

According to insiders, the relationship soured after a 2024 election interview with Kamala Harris aired and quickly became legal tinder for Donald Trump’s camp. Although CBS has fought to toss the case, the ordeal sparked an FCC investigation and opened a gaping hole of vulnerability that Redstone and Paramount executives scrambled to patch — by inserting a new layer of editorial supervision right into the newsroom.

Owens saw the writing on the wall. In a stinging statement, he made it clear: his ability to make independent decisions had been stripped away. His resignation is being interpreted by CBS News veterans not as mere frustration — but as a warning flare aimed directly at Redstone and the suits upstairs.

Lesley Stahl didn’t mince words either. “I have been made aware of interference in our news processes, and calling into question our judgment,” she told Variety. “That is not the way that companies that own news organizations should be acting.”

At the heart of the tension? The sudden installation of former CBS News exec Al Ortiz, a standards and practices veteran, to quietly oversee stories — a move insiders describe as planting a corporate “spy” inside the show’s famously autonomous walls. To many longtime producers, it felt like betrayal. “60 Minutes” had spent nearly six decades fiercely protecting its editorial independence — and now, for the first time, they could feel the corporate breath on their necks.

It didn’t help that Susan Zirinsky, the beloved former CBS News president, was brought back as a so-called “interim executive editor” tasked with smoothing things over. While Zirinsky is respected and reportedly pushed back against the worst excesses of corporate meddling, the damage had been done. Trust had eroded.

And now, as Paramount teeters on the brink of a massive merger with Skydance — and as other media giants like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Comcast make brutal cuts to their news operations — the question looms: will “60 Minutes” survive the corporate bloodbath with its soul intact?

For now, veteran producer Tanya Simon will step in as interim leader. Staffers are cautiously hopeful she’ll protect the show’s DNA. But nothing feels certain. If David Ellison and Skydance take the reins, will they honor the promises of editorial independence made by the old guard?

One thing is clear: the “60 Minutes” team isn’t going down without a fight. Owens’ departure was the opening shot. And Shari Redstone, for all her power, is now firmly in their sights.