60 Minutes Rattles Viewers with Stunning Closing Segment, Implies That Trump Administration Is Pressuring Their Coverage

• 60 Minutes surprised viewers on Sunday night by ending with a segment about their executive producer, Bill Owens, who resigned last week.
• Correspondent Scott Pelley spoke out on Owens’ departure, implying that CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, had been influencing the show’s coverage in order to appease President Donald Trump.
• Paramount is currently trying to complete a multi-million dollar merger with Skydance, which would require regulatory approval from the Trump-appointed FCC.

Following the surprise resignation of 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, the news magazine’s Sunday night broadcast ended with a segment implying that President Donald Trump and his administration have had an inappropriate influence on the show. 

Correspondent Scott Pelley, in a segment of “The Last Minute,” insinuated that the show’s parent company, Paramount Global, had started to push back on some of their more hard-hitting segments — especially those about the current administration.

The company is currently in the process of completing a major merger with Skydance, and needs the Trump administration’s regulatory approval.

“Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration,” Pelley, 67, told viewers. “Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way, but our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.”

“Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” he continued. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”

In his resignation memo obtained by multiple outlets on April 22, Owens claimed that he had lost the ability to “make independent decisions” regarding the show and “what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.”

“Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” he continued. “Having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward.”

In his segment, Pelley said that “no one here is happy” about Owens leaving 60 Minutes. 

“But in resigning, Bill proved one thing: he was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along,” the former CBS Evening News anchor continued. “It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us and you.”

Trump’s ongoing vendetta against 60 Minutes is a major roadblock for the Paramount-Skydance merger. The president is currently in the midst of a lawsuit with the show, over an interview they conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris in the midst of her 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump filed the lawsuit in October 2024, claiming that CBS News edited one of Harris’ answers in order to improve her chances of winning the White House. While the network initially refused his legal team’s demand for an unedited transcript of the interview, they did eventually make it public January, following a request from the Federal Communications Commission.

Paramount’s legal team has argued that the suit is an “affront to the First Amendment and is without basis in law or fact,” noting that all news shows regularly edit interviews for clarity, context and airtime — not in an effort to change the facts.

However, in February, The New York Times reported that Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, told the board that she wanted to settle the legal battle with Trump. While the NYT said at the time that Redstone’s statement didn’t mention the Skydance deal by name, it did “underscore the fact that a pending multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the president made it difficult for Paramount to do business.”

Redstone, the only daughter of late Viacom founder and CBS chairman Sumner Redstone. stands to make a significant amount of money if the merger is completed.

Trump has made no secret about his desire to bring the law down on 60 Minutes, CBS News and Paramount.

In an April 13 post on Truth Social, he called for his appointed FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, to impose fines and strip the network of its license over 60 Minutes segments on Greenland and Ukraine.

“They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this.”

When 60 Minutes launched its 55th season in 2022, Owens told PEOPLE that he and his team had “no interest in changing the content” of the historic news magazine, even as the media landscape evolves.

“60 Minutes is a place where you’re not going to get a partisan take on anything,” Owens said at the time. “I like to tell the staff we broadcast to the entire country. We’re not aiming at anybody. We’re aiming at the entire country, San Francisco to Kansas City to Sarasota to Hartford, Connecticut.”