What to Know About the New ‘60 Minutes’ On-Air Personalities as Season 59 Premieres

60 Minutes is still ticking — or so CBS wants you to believe. New executive producer Nick Bilton recently hyped up the storied newsmagazine’s upcoming 59th season, premiering Sunday, September 13, at 7/6c, with breathless praise for the new talent joining the show.

What Bilton didn’t mention in his announcement is that 60 Minutes is trying to recover from the chaos of the past few months. Under new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, former 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Scott Pelley all lost their jobs, and Anderson Cooper stepped away. Alfonsi, Vega, and Pelley all alleged the Weiss regime meddled with their 60 Minutes work politically, while Cooper expressed a hope the show could maintain editorial independence.

We now know Norah O’Donnell, previously a contributing correspondent, will join Ross Douthat as new full-time correspondents for the newsmagazine, joining returning correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim. Bilton’s announcement also heralded the arrivals of new 60 Minute contributors Sebastian Junger, Gianna Toboni, and Trevor Phillips. And we know that Ariel Levy and Matt Gutman are joining the 60 Minutes payroll as contributors.

Some of those names might sound familiar. O’Donnell is a longtime CBS News star, while Junger is a bestselling author. And Douthat was, like Weiss and Bilton, a columnist at The New York Times.

Now Weiss and Bilton will have to win over skeptics like NPR critic-at-large Eric Deggans, who wrote in his Substack newsletter that the duo “seem to be picking correspondents and contributors who are politically more palatable to them.”

Deggans added, “What also bothers me terribly about this turn of events, is the idea that people who have no experience in TV news — like Weiss, Bilton, and Douthat — can suddenly take the reins of the best newsmagazine in commercial TV history and somehow adequately do the job.”

While we wait to see whether 60 Minutes will survive to see Season 60, here’s what we know about Season 59’s additions.

Norah O’Donnell

O’Donnell’s is the face CBS viewers are most likely to recognize: She cohosted CBS This Morning from 2012 to 2019, when she became anchor of CBS Evening News, a position she held until 2025. And just last week, CBS announced she’d return to cohost CBS’ morning show, now called CBS Mornings. O’Donnell has also contributed to 60 Minutes since 2013, she’s the host of the podcast Healthful, and she’s the author of We the Women: Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America.

“Norah is a powerhouse,” Bilton wrote in his announcement. “You’ve seen her all over the network. She’s launched a new podcast. And you’ll see much more of her in our halls because Norah will be a correspondent on 60 Minutes.”

O’Donnell doesn’t seem to have qualms about working under CBS News’ current management, judging from Instagram comments Deadline collated.

When one user said it was “really disappointing” that O’Donnell would work for “a network that is little more than state-sponsored, fascist propaganda,” O’Donnell responded, “You are obviously not watching the shows.”

When one user said they’d “never watch a minute of CBS programming after the Colbert/60 Minutes fiasco,” O’Donnell said, “Give us a try.”

And when another user said O’Donnell was “too good for CBS” under the Weiss–Ellison regime, the anchor responded, “This is so silly. Just watch our show!”

Ross Douthat

Douthat is a former editor for The Atlantic and opinion columnist for The New York Times, his Times bio explains. He also spent 20 years reviewing films for the National Review. Douthat’s books include Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, and Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. He was also the host of the Times’ podcast Interesting Times.

“Ross is one of the preeminent public intellectuals in America today, a thinker of uncommon rigor and a journalist of deep empathy,” Bilton said.

But Douthat’s politics have made stir. The Atlantic’s George Packer, a professional contact of Douthat’s, wrote that the columnist has “carried on a years-long flirtation with MAGA, endorsing many of its policies while hedging his personal dislike of [President Donald] Trump against his antipathy toward the opposition.”

Sebastian Junger

Junger is best known for writing the 1997 nonfiction book The Perfect Storm, basis of the 2000 film of the same name. As a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Junger and contributing photographer Tim Hetherington won a DuPont-Columbia University Award for the Nightline segment “The Other War: Afghanistan,” as the magazine reported. He and Hetherington then brought their War in Afghanistan reporting to the big screen with the 2010 documentary Restrepo.

“We all remember The Perfect Storm,” Bilton said. “It landed with an electric charge in the world of reported nonfiction, defining an intense and intimate form of storytelling and establishing Sebastian as a generational talent. It was a bestseller, as were his next six books. Sebastian carried that intensity and that ethos of deep reporting to his work as a documentarian, broadcast journalist and war correspondent.”

Gianna Toboni

Toboni is a former correspondent and producer for Vice News who has Emmy, duPont-Columbia, GLAAD, and Webby awards to her name. She has also been a Peabody finalist and a name on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for Media, per a Simon & Schuster bio. She’s the author of The Volunteer: The Failure of the Death Penalty in America and One Inmate’s Quest to Die with Dignity. And she’s the sister of Grimm and The L Word: Generation Q star Jacqueline Toboni.

“Gianna is a journalist with extraordinary range,” Bilton said. “She’s interviewed members of ISIS and investigated cartel violence in Mexico. She’s also been recognized for her compassionate and incisive reporting on complex social and cultural issues, including America’s mass shootings and the death penalty…”

Trevor Phillips

Phillips formerly hosted ITV’s The London Programme and Sky News’ Sunday Morning. His accolades include three wins at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards, an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and a knighthood. He and his brother Mike authored Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain.

“Trevor is one of the most respected and trusted voices in the United Kingdom for his ability to ask the toughest questions and hold anyone in power to account,” Bilton said. “He will bring that same passion for the pursuit of the truth to 60 Minutes.”

That said, Phillips has been the subject of controversy. For around a year between 2020 and 2021, he was suspended from the United Kingdom’s Labour party due to allegations of Islamophobia regarding past comments of his, according to The Guardian.

Ariel Levy

Levy’s hiring as a 60 Minutes contributor made headlines in August. She had been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008, according to Variety, and had delved into Girls Gone Wild and Sex and the City for the magazine. She’s also the author of the memoir The Rules Do Not Apply and the nonfiction book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Plus, Levy co-authored Demi Moore’s autobiography, Inside Out, and she joined John Turturro in adapting the Philip Roth book Sabbath’s Theater into a play.

“Ariel is an astonishingly original writer and reporter, fearlessly going to far-flung places and exploring sensitive topics that have driven consequential debates,” Bilton wrote in a memo to staffers at the time, per Variety. “For nearly three decades, first at New York magazine and then at The New Yorker, she has reported on culture, gender, sexuality, health and the people and ideas shaping modern life in a way that is entirely unique.”

Matt Gutman

Gutman, former chief national correspondent at ABC News, just started working at CBS News as chief correspondent in January. As CBS News said in announcing his hiring, Gutman would have a “significant presence” at the news organization, including reporting for CBS Evening News and CBS Mornings and jobs as lead correspondent for 48 Hours and contributor to 60 Minutes.

“I have worked with Matt for decades and I have seen his innate ability to take viewers into a story,” Tom Cibrowski, president of CBS News, said at the time. “Whether he’s on the frontlines of a conflict or the scene of a rescue mission, he has the power to connect with people in a way that informs and engages. He has a sharp news sense, an acute ability to deliver immersive storytelling and a deep appreciation of history that will be an asset to all of us.”

Gutman filled in as CBS Evening News anchor this July and scored the program’s best ratings in 17 weeks. His career hit a snag the following month when he was accused of sexual harassment lawsuit from a former ABC News colleague, but he was dropped from that suit earlier this month.

60 Minutes, Season 59 Premiere, Sunday, September 13, 7/6c, CBS & Paramount+