Mr. Bilton has had a varied career. After working as a designer at The Times, Mr. Bilton became a technology columnist for the newspaper in 2009, and left in 2016 to join Vanity Fair as a correspondent, where he covered technology, politics and culture.
Since then, he has worked in documentary film, writing, directing and producing “Fake Famous,” an HBO documentary about aspiring social media influencers; and working as a producer on “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” a film directed by Alex Gibney about the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Mr. Bilton has also written books and is set to publish a true crime book about a Hawaiian crime syndicate with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. (He also wrote the screenplay for its film adaptation to be directed by Martin Scorsese).
“60 Minutes” has been at the center of an ongoing drama about the future of CBS News.
President Trump sued CBS before the election in 2024 over an interview that the program conducted with Kamala Harris, who was running against him. The network’s owner, Paramount, eventually paid $16 million to settle the case, which many lawyers had deemed frivolous. Tensions within the network over how to respond to Mr. Trump also contributed to the resignation of a “60 Minutes” executive producer, Bill Owens, before Ms. Weiss joined.
For decades, “60 Minutes” has been something of an imperial institution within CBS News, operating with a high degree of independence. Some of the show’s executive producers have had a direct line to the company’s chief executive, and its correspondents — who identify themselves by name at the top of the broadcast — were venerated globetrotters who operated out of separate offices.
Mr. Bilton said that he wanted “60 Minutes” to maintain its reputation for independence and also collaborate with the rest of the news division.
“There’s incredible people at CBS News, and I think that it’s important for me to be able to tap into some of them at certain times, and vice versa,” Mr. Bilton said. “That doesn’t mean that it’s going to become one big organization. ‘60’ will still have its independence.”
Michael M. Grynbaum contributed reporting
