The newsroom at “60 Minutes” is facing another goodbye.
Henry Schuster, a longtime producer on the CBS program, revealed his departure in a LinkedIn post Monday, June 29. Schuster, who joined “60 Minutes” as a full-time producer in 2007, had been with the Emmy-winning newscast for 19 years.
“After almost two decades, it was time for a change,” Schuster wrote. “It has been a great run at ’60 Minutes,’ and what I got to do there was extraordinary. But I have been thinking about leaving for a while now, and when the opportunity presented itself in February, I took it.”
Schuster’s exit comes after it was reported in February that several staffers at CBS’ “Evening News” program, including at least six producers, accepted a buyout offer from the network.
The producer’s departure also adds to the staffing shake-up that’s been taking place at CBS under new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. The network’s recent mass firings, dubbed “Black Thursday” by the industry, have included longtime correspondent Scott Pelley, executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
Schuster alluded to the controversy surrounding “60 Minutes” in his post, saying the news of his exit had been “overshadowed by the forced departures of so many colleagues and friends at the broadcast.”
“What’s next? I ain’t the retiring type, so after a bit of a break, I will think about what comes next,” Schuster concluded. “Maybe I will finally get my high school diploma or see if I have another book in me. Or maybe something else…. I will try to avoid being a cliché, so I’m not starting a podcast or a Substack. At least not now.”
Pelley, 68, was abruptly fired from “60 Minutes” in early June after more than two decades on the air. His termination stemmed from an internal dispute with CBS leadership, USA TODAY learned on June 2, which left him without severance or other benefits effective immediately.
During a heated staff meeting, Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the news institution, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times. Tensions also flared with new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton.
In a termination note, Bilton chastised Pelley for his “performative display of hostility,” saying that he “hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.”
Pelley, who’s since signed a deal with Creative Artists Agency, reflected on his firing in an emotional June 7 interview on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast. The broadcaster said he doesn’t feel “sorry” for himself but cares about the “people that I left behind” at “60 Minutes” and about “this institution that I love so much.”
“The best thing that I can imagine in terms of describing it is that it’s like your spouse was murdered,” Pelley said. “There’s some moments of the day I feel fine. There’s some moments of the day that I just, frankly, fall apart, when I least expect it.”
Contributing: Anthony Robledo and Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
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