Scott Pelley fired after clash with new 60 Minutes producer Nick Bilton

Veteran CBS journalist Scott Pelley has been fired from 60 Minutes after confronting the show’s new executive producer during a staff meeting and accusing CBS News leadership of trying to destroy the program.

The termination letter, obtained by Puck and signed by 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton, said Pelley’s employment with CBS was terminated for cause effective immediately. Pelley, one of the most prominent correspondents on the CBS newsmagazine, had worked on the program for more than two decades.

The firing came one day after Pelley confronted Bilton during a meeting with 60 Minutes staff, according to NBC News, which obtained audio of the exchange.

Bilton, a documentary filmmaker and technology journalist who recently took over as executive producer, wrote in the letter that he had tried to reach out to Pelley after joining the show, including by calling him and inviting him to dinner.

“It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead,” Bilton wrote, according to the letter obtained by Puck’s Dylan Byers.

Bilton accused Pelley of hijacking his first staff meeting to “disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.” He said the exchange was not a respectful debate but a “performative display of hostility” in front of staff.

“I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama,” Bilton wrote.

Bilton said he had hoped a meeting with Pelley on Tuesday could lead to a path forward, but said Pelley made clear he was not interested.

“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,” Bilton wrote. “And I have heard you.”

CBS has not released a public statement beyond the termination letter. Pelley has not publicly commented.