Jimmy Kimmel Enters '60 Minutes' Firestorm After Scott Pelley’s CBS Firing
Jimmy Kimmel Enters '60 Minutes' Firestorm After Scott Pelley’s CBS Firing
OK! Staff Mon, June 8, 2026 at 9:55 AM UTC
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Jimmy Kimmel defended Scott Pelley during his monologue.Jimmy Kimmel Live/YOUTUBE; MEGA
Jimmy Kimmel used his June 3 monologue to address CBS' 60 Minutes crisis, defending fired correspondent Scott Pelley and accusing the network's new leadership of caving to political pressure.
Pelley was fired after confronting new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton and criticizing CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who has been reshaping the network since joining under Paramount Skydance's new leadership.
Jimmy Kimmel Takes Scott Pelley's Side
Scott Pelley was fired after he confronted CBS leadership.MEGA
"CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley," Kimmel said, "because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that's been the gold standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years."
Pelley reportedly told Bilton that Weiss "does not love this place" and "was brought in to kill it." Bilton, who has no previous TV news experience, fired him the next day.
Kimmel also noted the recent exits of Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and executive producer Tanya Simon, calling the decision to fire Pelley "cowardly."
A Newsroom Fight Becomes Late-Night Fuel
Jimmy Kimmel criticized the network's handling of the dispute.Jimmy Kimmel Live/YOUTUBE
"What Jimmy Kimmel did with the Scott Pelley firing is exactly what late night does best: it took a complicated institutional story about ownership, editorial independence, and newsroom power dynamics and made it feel personal," said Amore Philip, founder of Apples and Oranges Public Relations. "And when a story feels personal, it travels."
Philip noted Pelley's confrontation made the turmoil impossible to dismiss as routine turnover.
"When a veteran correspondent of his stature publicly accuses new leadership of murdering the show he spent decades building, in front of the entire staff, on the new executive producer's first day, that is not a personnel dispute," she said. "That is an institution publicly consuming itself."
The Clip That Made the Story Personal
The controversy fueled new concerns about media credibility.MEGA
Pelley later released a statement claiming "new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story" and that he had been told to include "assertions that are unverified."
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Kimmel framed the firing as part of a broader CBS pattern, referencing the network's cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
"Late night amplifies these media scandals because they offer something straight news coverage cannot: moral clarity with a punchline," Philip explained.
Donald Trump Enters the Story
Donald Trump attacked Scott Pelley during a podcast appearance. MEGA
Kimmel also pointed to President Donald Trump's reaction, noting that the president attacked Pelley during a podcast appearance and called him part of "a gang of crooked, stupid people."
Kimmel joked that Pelley's gang was "different from the gang of crooked, stupid people [Trump's] a part of."
For Philip, the stakes go beyond one firing.
"60 Minutes was one of the last legacy news brands that still carried genuine institutional credibility," she said. "When that credibility is being dismantled in real time and late night is providing the commentary track, the damage is not just to CBS. It is to the idea of legacy news itself."
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
