Jimmy Kimmel, Rachel Maddow And TV Veterans Slam CBS Over Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes Firing.

Scott Pelley’s firing from 60 Minutes has turned into a full-scale media firestorm, with major television figures and former CBS veterans publicly criticizing the network’s decision.

Pelley, who spent 22 years on 60 Minutes and 37 years at CBS News, was reportedly fired after a tense meeting with new executive producer Nick Bilton. According to Entertainment Weekly, Pelley had challenged the direction of the program under new CBS News leadership and questioned Bilton’s qualifications, noting that he had no traditional broadcast television news experience.

The firing immediately drew strong reactions from across the television world.

Jimmy Kimmel addressed the controversy during Jimmy Kimmel Live!, sharply criticizing CBS and praising Pelley as a journalist who “stood up for truth and integrity.” Kimmel framed the firing as an attack on one of broadcast journalism’s most respected institutions, saying 60 Minutes had long been considered the gold standard for serious television reporting.

Kimmel also pointed to the broader upheaval inside CBS News, including the departures or firings of executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and Anderson Cooper. To Kimmel, Pelley’s exit was not an isolated decision. It was part of a larger collapse of values at the top.

Rachel Maddow also came to Pelley’s defense, using her MSNBC program to describe the situation at CBS as part of a dangerous pressure campaign against independent media. She warned that powerful political and corporate forces were trying to shape the press into something more obedient and less willing to challenge authority.

Maddow said she hoped Pelley would quickly return to television, even suggesting she would be happy to see him land at her own network. Her comments turned the story into something larger than one newsroom dispute. For Maddow, the issue was press freedom itself.

Inside CBS, the reaction was also emotional. CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil honored Pelley’s legacy during Wednesday’s broadcast, recalling how Pelley had once sat in the same anchor chair and still found time to mentor new correspondents. Dokoupil said Pelley believed deeply in the mission of journalism and the importance of a free press.

Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft has also condemned the firings, calling the decisions “disastrous” and saying they made no business sense. Kroft argued that 60 Minutes remained one of the most successful and trusted news programs on television, making the sudden shake-up even harder to understand.

The backlash has gone beyond television commentary. Entertainment Weekly reported that CBS News staffers and former 60 Minutes correspondents, including Dan Rather and Katie Couric, signed an open letter urging CBS leadership to protect editorial independence and respect the values that made the program trusted for decades.

The letter warned that the wholesale dismissal of editorial leaders, without a clear public commitment to journalistic standards, put the legacy of 60 Minutes in jeopardy. It argued that the issue was not simply modernization, but whether one of America’s most important news programs could remain independent under new ownership and leadership.

For longtime viewers, the controversy feels deeply unsettling. 60 Minutes has built its reputation over more than five decades by asking hard questions, investigating powerful institutions and refusing to soften uncomfortable truths.

Scott Pelley’s firing has now become a symbol of something much bigger: a fight over whether that tradition will continue.

CBS may view the changes as part of a new era. But the growing backlash from Kimmel, Maddow, Couric, Rather, Kroft and others shows that many in the media world see the situation differently.

To them, this is not just a personnel decision.

It is a warning about the future of serious journalism on American television.