EXCLUSIVE: The courthouse or the boardroom could be the next venue for Sharyn Alfonsi and CBS News now that the seasoned journalist has been pink-slipped not just from 60 Minutes but the Bari Weiss-led division too.
One day after going public with the end of her decade-long role at the acclaimed newsmagazine show, Alfornsi has been shown the door at CBS News itself. Deadline can confirm. Alfonsi’s contract with the network was left to lapse.
The de facto firing of Alfonsi comes as would-be contrarian and controversy-courting Weiss made long-anticipated sweeping changes at 60 Minutes this morning.
New York Times alum Nick Bilton has been brought in as executive producer of the show, with Tanya Simon out ASAP. Having already lost a weary Anderson Cooper, 60 Minutes also has axed EP Draggan Mihailoivich, along with correspondent Cecilia Vega and Alfornsi. More changes in personnel as well as format are in the offing, sources close to events tell me.
In terms of Alfonsi, who has been in a public squabble with Weiss for months over a 60 Minutes segment critical of the Trump administration was spiked at the eleventh hour last year, the journalist might not be going so quietly.
A few weeks back Alfonsi hired hard-hitting litigator Bryan Freedman. With Freedman’s representation in pocket, events already are in motion that indicate a legal tussle is in the making — perhaps behind closed doors, perhaps not.
With Alfonsi’s for hire contract not renewed, the battleground will likely shift to the way she was treated at CBS News under Weiss’ less than a year old regime. Specifically, the manner in which Alfonsi’s work and objectivity was disparaged with the very public pulling of her CECOT piece. Additionally, the even more public hanging out to dry of Alfonsi late last year only accentuates any claims of ill treatment, toxic workplace or fail of leadership against CBS News if the journalist chooses to go that route.
And that’s why you hire a Bryan Freedman.
Best known of late for his role in the now-somewhat-settled Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni dust-up, Freedman in many ways made his bones representing the likes of Megyn Kelly, Chris Cuomo and Tucker Carlson in ensuring their forced departures (to put it politely) from their respective networks ended up being lucrative for the hosts. Whether CBS News’ parent company, the David Ellison-owned Paramount, is willing to go to the mattresses over Alfonsi remains to be seen — or perhaps they will write a hefty check in the hope that Alfonsi and Freedman go away without going to court.
Either way, Alfonsi and Freedman are preparing for a variety of scenarios based on how her not totally surprising exit from CBS News went down, I’m told.
Freedman himself did not respond to request from Deadline on repping Alfonsi. CBS News didn’t have anything to say on Alfronsi being out-and-out fired, except to direct us to the press release announcing Bilton’s hiring.
Having joked (not joked) of late at events of her worry about having a job, Alfonsi clearly figured out which way the wind was blowing and isn’t fearful of staking out her ground — even more so this week.
“Fearless, independent reporting has always been the defining standard at 60 Minutes,” Alfonsi said Wednesday after not having her 60 Minutes contract renewed. A lack of renewal she called “a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting, and it sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”
That chill began in December 2025 when planned and advertised Alfonsi-fronted 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to violent and cruel El Salvador prisons was pulled from the Sunday newsmagazine just hours before airing.
At the time, Weiss said the long-vetted piece wasn’t balanced enough for primetime. The Free Press founder told colleagues she felt the Trump camp wasn’t given the proper forum and time to respond. That flared up internally as the Alfonsi piece had been researched, she had reached out to the administration and then was vetted and given the green light to proceed — until Weiss stepped in.
While the segment did run weeks later, the stain on 60 Minutes and CBS News has not gone away.
On May 27, Alfonsi proclaimed: “The wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down. Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not. If this continues, the result will be a broadcast that looks like 60 Minutes but lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters.”
Those words land even harder today — in and out of the courts of the law and public opinion.
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