“Leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter, BUT…”: SH0CKING shake-up behind the scenes at 60 Minutes as Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi both ousted, executive producer is replaced, and a hidden behind-the-scenes secret is now being expσsed—sending sh0ckwaves through the newsroom

Sharyn Alfonsi (left); Cecilia Vega (right).Credit : Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty; Pawel Kaminski/ABC via Getty

Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi have parted ways with 60 Minutes.

On Thursday, May 28, PEOPLE confirmed the two journalists would not be returning to the long-running CBS newsmagazine.

Vega, 49, said in an Instagram post that she was “fired” from CBS and her contract did not expire until March 2027.

“In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories,” Vega, who joined CBS News in 2023 after over a decade with ABC News, wrote in part. “Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions.”

“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven,” Vega continued. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”

The shakeup comes as CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski fired executive producer Tanya Smith. She was replaced by Nick Bilton, an investigative journalist and author who has not worked for a major news television network before.

“Nick is one of the most entrepreneurial journalists of our time and the perfect leader for one of the most entrepreneurial news brands of all time,” Weiss said in a statement announcing Bilton’s hire.

“Hiring Nick represents a deliberate vision for 60 MINUTES to go beyond an hour on Sunday evenings to become a 360-degree product that reaches audiences wherever they consume information,” CBS News president Tom Cibrowski added.

“My time as Executive Producer of 60 Minutes and at CBS News is coming to an end,” Simon wrote. “While leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter – I want to be unequivocally clear about one thing: it has been an immense privilege to lead this broadcast, and I could not be prouder of what we have built, fought for, and delivered together over the last year. 60 Minutes has always been more than just a broadcast: it is an institution built on independence, grit, [and rigorous] search for the truth. That is work we did together – and with ratings up 9% over last year no less. You should all be proud.”

Simon said she’d been with the show for more than 25 years, and that the series was “part of my DNA.”

“I am leaving with tremendous respect for the outstanding journalism you strive to maintain every day,” she concluded.

In a Wednesday, May 27, interview with The New York Times, Alfonsi said she felt the reasoning behind the decision to let her go could be politically motivated.

“It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” she said. “I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”

Alfonsi, 53, previously filmed a segment covering Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to a notorious El Salvador prison titled “Inside CECOT.” However, the network held it, instead publishing a press release that said it needed additional reporting and would air at a future date. It eventually aired in January 2026.

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In a December 2025 note obtained by The New York Times, Alfonsi said she learned the day before “Inside CECOT” was scheduled to air that Weiss pulled the story, calling the decision “not an editorial decision” but “a political one.”

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote at the time. “It is factually correct.”

“If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me,” Alfonsi told The Times on May 27.

When Alfonsi’s contract expired on May 23, CBS did not renew it.