Wendy McMahon’s departure marks the second high-profile leadership change at the network in less than a month
NEED TO KNOW
- CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon announced her resignation on Monday, May 19, saying in a memo, “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward”
- Her departure marks the second high-profile leadership change at the network in the last month after 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens left because he said he was no longer able to make “independent decisions” about program content
- Their departures come as CBS parent company Paramount prepares to possibly settle a lawsuit from President Donald Trump over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris
CBS News is facing another leadership shakeup after CEO Wendy McMahon announced her resignation. Her departure follows the exit of a prominent executive producer, who stepped down just weeks ago.
McMahon’s announcement comes as the network and its parent company Paramount are considering settling a $20 billion dollar lawsuit with President Donald Trump, whose team is suing over the editing of Bill Whitaker’s 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris in October 2024.
CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, is currently working to complete a merger with Skydance. The company needs regulatory approval from the Trump administration to do so.
McMahon, who became CEO in 2023, wrote about the “privilege and joy” of leading the network in a Monday, May 19, memo to colleagues announcing her departure, according to Deadline.
She also wrote that recent months at the network had “been challenging,” adding, “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”
According to Deadline, CBS News is losing a “staunch defender” of 60 Minutes and CBS’ news division with McMahon’s exit. She leaves the company just one day after 60 Minutes completed its 57th season, during which the show continued to air hard-hitting reporting about the Trump administration.
The network previously lost another leader amidst the proposed Skydance merger when 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned due to difficulties maintaining independence, per The New York Times.
In an April 22 resignation memo obtained by the Times, Owens said it became “clear” to him that he “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.”
In an unconventional message to viewers that closed out an April 27 episode of 60 Minutes, longtime correspondent Scott Pelley declared that “no one” was “happy” about Owens’ exit from the program.
Pelley, 67, implied that President Trump was having an unfair influence on the show, and hinted that Paramount Global was beginning to push back on certain 60 Minutes segments, including critical coverage of the current administration.
“Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration,” Pelley said. “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.”
He continued, “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
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Trump has been outspoken in his attacks on 60 Minutes since alleging in his October 2024 lawsuit that CBS News edited Harris’ answer in her interview with Whitaker in order to improve her chances of winning the presidential election.
Paramount’s legal team has since stated that Trump’s lawsuit is “without basis in law or fact,” but the Times reported in February that Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, was reportedly considering settling with Trump anyway.
If the merger is completed, Redstone stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars.
