Jimmy Kimmel, Rachel Maddow, Katie Couric, and more criticize Scott Pelley firing from“ 60 Minutes”

Sharareh DruryThu, June 4, 2026 at 10:06 PM UTC

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Rachel Maddow, Jimmy KimmelCredit: Patrick Randak/MSNBC; Jesse Grant/Variety via GettyKey Points -

Jimmy Kimmel and Rachel Maddow are among the many on-air personalities voicing support for Scott Pelley after his firing from CBS' 60 Minutes.

Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes following a tense meeting with new executive producer Nick Bilton.

"He stood up for truth and integrity," Kimmel said of Pelley.

In the wake of Scott Pelley's firing from 60 Minutes, several celebrities and journalists are calling out CBS for ousting the veteran journalist after 22 years on the program.

Pelley was fired on Tuesday evening after accusing newly appointed CBS News boss Bari Weiss of "murdering" the newsmagazine program in a staff meeting on Monday. The former correspondent also told newly appointed executive producer Nick Bilton, a filmmaker and former tech reporter who has no broadcast television experience, that his qualifications for the job were "slender."

Jimmy Kimmeladdressed Pelley's shocking exit during Wednesday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. "Last night, the Trump suck-ups at CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley, from his job at 60 Minutes," Kimmel said during his monologue, "because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that's been the gold standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years."

The comedian added that Pelley "had had enough after the clowns" who joined the program as executives after the firing of executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and executive producer Tanya Simon. Correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper, meanwhile, have all departed or been fired. Kimmel also took a shot at Bilton, describing him as "a guy who has no experience in TV news" that was hired to replace Simon as executive producer.

"He said the collapse of values at the top has become untenable," Kimmel said of why Pelley disagreed so much with what was taking place at CBS. "And he let him have it in a staff meeting right to the new guy's face. So last night they fired him."

Scott Pelley on '60 Minutes'Credit: CBS News

Rachel Maddow has also voiced support for Pelley, calling his firing part of the "Hungarian, oligarchic-style takeover of the media" during her MS Now show on Tuesday.

"There's nobody who is more acutely attuned to the value of a free press than those who are trying to take it away," Maddow said. "When the president baldly says, 'I am going to use the power of the state in order to get the media that I want,' and he lines up oligarchic friends in order to do that for him. Again, there's no pretense. There's no saying this is for any other reason."

She added, "There's nothing else going on at CBS News other than what we can see is happening at CBS News. And I don't know where Scott Pelley will land. Frankly, I hope he lands right here. I hope he's on TV tomorrow. I hope that everybody in journalism and everybody who values a free press figures out ways to outmaneuver the people who are trying to take the free press from us."

Bari Weiss, Scott PelleyCredit: Noam Galai/Getty; Michele Crowe/CBS

CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil also commended Pelley's legacy during Wednesday's broadcast of their daily news program.

"When I started at CBS, Scott Pelley was in this very chair, and still doing a dozen stories a year for 60 Minutes. And amid all of that, still meeting every new correspondent to share his view of the mission here," Dokoupil said. "[Pelley] believed freedom of the press, to quote [James Madison], was 'the right that guaranteed all the others.' And the stakes are always that high in that, if you'd made it to CBS News, you were among the best in the world. He worked every single day to live up to that standard."

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Former 60 Minutes correspondentSteve Kroft also called out CBS for their "disastrous" decision to fire Pelley, as well as Alfonsi and Vega, while under the leadership of Bari Weiss and David Ellison.

"It began, really, with an interview that Bill Whitaker had done with Kamala Harris, in which CBS was sued... by the Trump administration for what they called an illegal edit," Kroft said during a recent segment on the PBS NewsHour, referencing CBS' decision to settle a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with Harris. "The lawsuit had absolutely no merit… Since then, it's been sort of just one thing after another."

Kroft added, "I think this is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. The show is still doing very well. It's the highest-rated news program on television. And it has been that way for more than 50 years. The audience was up about nine percent last year. And why would you mess with that?"

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Following Pelley's firing, CBS News staffers and former 60 Minutes correspondents such as Dan Rather and Katie Couric signed an open letter, which Entertainment Weekly has obtained, to Ellison demanding he "respect editorial values."

"We, the undersigned, urge you and your management team at CBS News to uphold the principle of editorial independence that has made 60 Minutes — in the words of the show's new executive producer — 'the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced,'" the letter began.

"Acquiring CBS News came with a legal requirement to serve the public interest, avoid political interference, and maintain editorial independence. Institutional trust is not transferred through ownership. 60 Minutes prospered and had impact because it operated under an implicit and sacred obligation to the public," it continued.

The letter emphasized that while modernizing the show was valuable, it should not come at the cost of "editorial integrity."

"The wholesale dismissal of editorial management, without a public pledge to maintain the values, standards, and traditions of this program, puts the legacy of 60 Minutes in jeopardy," the letter explained. "We urge you to send a clear message to your staff, your viewers, and the broader public that you respect and value editorial independence and press freedom. What is at stake is not just the future of the most important and enduring television journalism program in this country, but the future of free and independent press in America."

on Entertainment Weekly

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