UPDATED: CBS News is replacing the executive producer of 60 Minutes, with Tanya Simon exiting and an outside, Nick Bilton, named to lead its top-rated newsmagazine.

The change is part of a much anticipated shakeup to the show, the longest running newsmagazine on television.

Also out is Cecilia Vega, who has been a correspondent for the show since 2023, according to a source familiar with the changes. She had joined the show after serving as chief White House correspondent for ABC News. Also out is Draggan Mihailovich, who had been named executive editor last year, after 27 years with the show.

“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,” CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss said in a statement.

Some changes were already are known. Earlier on Thursday, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi was informed that she has been dropped from the broadcast, after clashing with Weiss over her decision to hold a segment on an El Salvadoran prison last December. She already announced that her contract was not being renewed. Another correspondent, Anderson Cooper chose not to renew his contract, and left the show earlier this month.

Simon had been in the role for less than a year, after Bill Owens resigned last spring, citing the inability to enjoy editorial independence without corporate influence.

Simon wrote in a note to staffers, “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.”

Simon is the daughter of Bob Simon, who was a correspondent for the show for almost 20 years before his death in 2015.

Bilton previously covered technology for The New York Times and was a contributor to Vanity Fair. He also hosted podcasts and was the filmmaker behind the documentaries The Inventor, Fake Famous and Biggest Heist Ever.

As a newcomer to the show and the network, his hiring signals major changes, although top CBS executives focused their comments on the need to bring the newsmagazine into the breakneck pace of the digital age.

Weiss said in a statement, “We have huge ambition for 60 Minutes to reach new heights through deep, revelatory journalism that breaks news, exposes wrongdoing, widens public understanding and forces accountability from every institution and every center of power. Nick shares this mission and will bring his deep investigative experience and understanding of the technological moment we’re in to 60 Minutes so that its important journalism comes to life for all audiences.”

Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, said that Bilton hiring is part of a plan “to go beyond an hour on Sunday evenings to become a 360-degree product that reaches audiences wherever they consume information.”

Through the years, the network has tried many different ways to expand the franchise, including a second primetime show and a short form video venture for Quibi, the mobile subscription service launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg. The show already features expanded content each week, called 60 Minutes Overtime.

Weiss has outlined a strategy to greatly increased the news division’s digital presence, including podcasts and streaming.

Cibrowski said, “Our ambition is to do hard-hitting journalism that respects our existing audience, brings in new audiences and enables viewers to proactively devote their attention to our work across every platform and medium.”

The changes also come amid cost cuts at the news division, which has seen a couple rounds of layoffs since Skydance’s acquisition of CBS-parent Paramount last year.

Bilton is only the fifth 60 Minutes executive producer since it was launched in 1968, following Don Hewitt, Jeff Fager, Owens and Simon.

In a note to staffers, Bilton wrote that he’s “here to lead the show, not preserve it under glass. That means honoring what works and being honest about what doesn’t. I have a notebook full of ideas. Some are about the show itself. Some are about the next generation of correspondents. Some are about the strange fact that we produce one extraordinary hour for one night a week in a world that consumes content around the clock.”

Bilton will come under intense scrutiny, not just for his changes but for the show’s story selection and tone. In her departing message to staffers, Alfonsi decried corporate interference, while network veterans like Dan Rather, a former 60 Minutes correspondent, have warned of the impact of Skydance’s takeover, in particular as CEO David Ellison now seeks Trump administration approval for his proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

“The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They have breached the walls and are now running the show,” Rather wrote earlier this year.

Last year, Skydance sought Trump administration approval for its acquisition of Paramount. An impediment was Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, litigation that the network’s own attorneys had characterized as baseless. But Paramount’s previous owners settled the lawsuit for $16 million, and the FCC gave the greenlight to the deal a couple of weeks later. In addition, Skydance committed to hiring an ombudsman to take complaints about the network’s coverage. That person, Kenneth Weinstein, has a background not in news but leading a conservative think tank.

In his note to staffers, Bilton wrote, “On the very first episode of 60 Minutes Mike Wallace said: ‘If this broadcast does what we hope it will do it will report reality.’ I can’t think of a better north star for 60 Minutes than that. Above all, that means a commitment to fairness — in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.”

Simon’s note to staffers is below: