NEW YORK — With his show involved in a bitter dispute with President Donald Trump, the top executive at the storied CBS News show ”60 Minutes” abruptly resigned on Tuesday while saying he’s losing the freedom to run it independently.
Bill Owens, executive producer of television’s most popular and influential newsmagazine since 2019, said in a note to staff that it has ”become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”
”The show is too important to the country,” he wrote. ”It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.”
Trump sued ”60 Minutes” for $20 billion last fall, claiming it deceptively edited an interview with his Democratic election opponent Kamala Harris. CBS denied it had done anything to give an advantage to Harris, and released the full transcript of its interview.
When Trump took office for his second term, his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, announced CBS would be investigated for the same issue.
At the same time, CBS parent Paramount Global, run by Shari Redstone, is seeking approval for a merger with Skydance Media, founded by Larry Ellison. They are reportedly in mediation to settle the lawsuit with Trump, a prospect that has been bitterly opposed by Owens and others at ”60 Minutes.”
With this backdrop, ”60 Minutes” has run an extraordinary series of tough stories about the new administration since it took office. The president angrily denounced the show on social media after its April 13 episode featured critical stories about Ukraine and Greenland, saying CBS should ”pay a big price” for going after him.
Owens was the third executive producer at the Sunday night newsmagazine, known for its ticking stopwatch. Only Don Hewitt, the show’s founder, and Jeff Fager preceded him. Owens did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday. Owens has worked at CBS News for 37 years, 25 of them at ”60 Minutes.”
