60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens announced his resignation from the show in a Tuesday memo, claiming that he has lost editorial control as the Trump administration advances its lawsuit against CBS.
Owens, the third executive producer in the show’s 57-year history, suggested that the last several months reveal he will “not be allowed to run the show” the way he previously ran it.
“To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. So 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,” Owens wrote.
His decision to step down comes as CBS faces a lawsuit from President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes edit of a former Vice President Kamala Harris interview from last year. Trump filed the suit in October 2024, accusing the network of giving Harris a favorable edit and distorting her response about Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is seeking $20 billion in damages, however some legal experts say his accusations are unlikely to hold up in court.
On April 13, Trump posted on Truth Social to express his outrage over 60 Minutes’s coverage of his administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine and his calls to purchase Greenland. He claimed the show “falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently” depicted him.
“They should lose their license! 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,” Trump wrote. “CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this.”
60 Minutes caught criticism from CBS’s parent company Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, for a segment reporting on the war in Gaza. Redstone considered 60 Minutes‘s depiction of Israel to be too critical.
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Owens, who has been an executive producer on the show since 2019 and has spent 37 years at CBS, said the show must continue in these critical times — just without him.
“The show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the Executive Producer,” Owens wrote. “Please remember, people didn’t think we would survive without Mike or Ed or Don or Jeff. We did. You will.”
