Henry Schuster’s ‘60 Minutes’ exit follows CBS upheaval

Henry Schuster’s – Henry Schuster, a longtime producer on “60 Minutes,” revealed his departure on Monday, June 29, adding to the staffing upheaval at CBS under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. His exit comes as the industry has been tracking a wave of departures that has already incl

Henry Schuster didn’t wait for an internal announcement or a public press release. He posted it himself on LinkedIn on Monday, June 29—making clear his nearly two-decade run on “60 Minutes” is over.

Schuster, who joined “60 Minutes” as a full-time producer in 2007, said he is stepping away after 19 years with the Emmy-winning program. “After almost two decades, it was time for a change,” he wrote. “It has been a great run at ’60 Minutes,’ and what I got to do there was extraordinary. But I have been thinking about leaving for a while now. and when the opportunity presented itself in February. I took it.”.

Schuster’s departure lands in a season of constant churn at CBS News. where new leadership has been reshaping staffing across the organization. The exit also follows earlier reporting that several staffers at CBS’ “Evening News. ” including at least six producers. accepted a buyout offer from the network.

Within “60 Minutes” itself. the shake-up has been closely watched since Bari Weiss took over as CBS News editor-in-chief and began setting a new direction for the long-running newsmagazine. Among those departures already reported are longtime correspondent Scott Pelley; executive producer Tanya Simon; executive editor Draggan Mihailovich; and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

Schuster’s post acknowledged that the storyline around his own exit was drowned out by the departures of colleagues and friends. He wrote that the news of his leaving had been “overshadowed by the forced departures of so many colleagues and friends at the broadcast.”

He then turned to the question most people faced in the aftermath of layoffs and buyouts—what comes next. “What’s next?. I ain’t the retiring type. so after a bit of a break. I will think about what comes next. ” Schuster wrote. “Maybe I will finally get my high school diploma or see if I have another book in me. Or maybe something else…. I will try to avoid being a cliché, so I’m not starting a podcast or a Substack. At least not now.”.

The personnel changes have also kept Pelley at the center of the wider dispute inside CBS. Pelley, 68, was abruptly fired from “60 Minutes” in early June after more than two decades on the air. The termination came after an internal dispute with CBS leadership, leaving him without severance or other benefits effective immediately.

During a heated staff meeting, Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the news institution, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times. Tensions also flared with new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton.

In a termination note, Bilton criticized Pelley for what he described as “performative display of hostility,” saying that he “hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt.”

Pelley’s removal didn’t end the story; it only shifted it. After being fired, he signed a deal with Creative Artists Agency. And in an emotional June 7 interview on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast. he reflected on his exit without portraying himself as the injured party—while emphasizing the people he said he left behind.

Pelley said he doesn’t feel “sorry” for himself, but he cares about the “people that I left behind” at “60 Minutes” and about “this institution that I love so much.”

“The best thing that I can imagine in terms of describing it is that it’s like your spouse was murdered,” Pelley said. “There’s some moments of the day I feel fine. There’s some moments of the day that I just, frankly, fall apart, when I least expect it.”

Schuster’s announcement. coming after months marked by buyouts. firings. and public-facing conflict. underscores how quickly routine roles can become part of a larger institutional breaking point. With more departures continuing to surface. “60 Minutes” is now confronting a staffing picture that is changing both its internal culture and its on-air continuity at the same time.

For Schuster, at least publicly, the break is first—followed by a private search for what comes next. For CBS, the exits add another chapter to a high-visibility transition led by Weiss, with the human cost continuing to ripple far beyond any single firing or single post.

CBS News 60 Minutes Henry Schuster Bari Weiss Scott Pelley Tanya Simon Draggan Mihailovich Sharyn Alfonsi Cecilia Vega Nick Bilton Creative Artists Agency buyout offer staff shake-up