Norah O'Donnell was about the last person you might expect to sit down for a gung-ho interview with Col. Dude, the anonymous weapons system officer whose rescue became the stuff of legend after his F-15E was shot down over Iran.
Yet there she was, dutifully nodding along as The Dude, as I shall forever think of him now, said to the 60 Minutes correspondent, "At one point when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. So I paused, right then, and I prayed, 'Lord, your will be done. But if I'm getting through this, I need help.'"
O'Donnell's face made it look like her new boss, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, had ordered her to sit down on a thumbtack.
Maybe the interview with Dude was a bit of assignment sadism on Weiss's part. If so, I salute her. But even if not, it was still an intriguing segment, and the kind of longer-format interview that the big networks' nightly broadcasts can't or won't do. For those of us who don't live in podcastlandia, it's nice that there's a 60 Minutes to do them.
It's been a long time since I watched the show, and I haven't been able to stomach O'Donnell since I saw her fluffing incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a question about how she would help Barack Obama deliver the "fundamental transformation the country requires."
Ugh.
Yet there I was, riveted.
It's the Bari Weiss era at 60 Minutes, but getting it started hasn't been easy — and a New York Post report Sunday claims that her reign is far from secure.
And Another Thing: You might sometimes see Col. Dude referred to as Dude 44 Bravo. Dude is his callsign, like "Maverick" in Top Gun. 44 was his flight number the day he was shot down, and Bravo indicates that he was the back-seater (weapons officer) and not the pilot. The pilot is Alpha because of course.
Before launching its 59th (!!!) season Sunday night, Weiss spent most of 2026 dealing with deadwood staff and prima donna correspondents in serious need of being shown the door.
Anderson Cooper left in February, long before Weiss announced any changes. In June, Scott Pelley in the most public way accused Weiss of “murdering” the program, resulting in him getting a well-deserved boot.
Has anyone heard much of anything from Pelley since then? It's enough to make you wonder whether Weiss's "more tweak than overhaul," as the New York Times put it, has him regretting going all prima donna into post-60 Minutes obscurity.
Weiss fired executive producer Tanya Simon last May, along with executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and senior producer Matthew Polevoy. That gave Weiss just three months to set the show on a new course, plus book and produce segments like O'Donnell's interview with Col. Dude.
Honestly, if you didn't know what to look for, you might have missed most of the changes. Here's more from that NYT report:
The pardon segment revived the use of a hidden camera, a once-common technique at “60 Minutes” that had dwindled in recent years. The show’s signature ticking stopwatch received a makeover, and the “book” graphics that used to appear behind correspondents were replaced with sleek screens.
And for those wondering how the new season would treat President Trump, the program referred to the war in Iran as “costly and unpopular,” and said he had pardoned “a string of unrepentant financial con men,” as well as “rioters” at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
I mean, I hope you weren't expecting Weiss to transmogrify 60 Minutes into the Glenn Beck Program because that was never going to happen. But Weiss does seem to have at least dragged the show's story selection toward the center.
Just hours before Sunday's broadcast, the New York Post reported that Weiss is currently "locked in a power struggle with the network’s president that critics claim is hamstringing the newsroom — and staffers are wagering that one of them gets ousted if ratings continue to flop this fall."
According to the Post, Weiss finds herself "at odds" with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who came to the network from ABC News in March 2025. “It’s a Cold War,” an anonymous but "prominent" CBS staffer told the paper. “We just want one side to win so we can do our jobs.”
It's interesting to see the struggle framed as whether Weiss or Cibrowski will play the fall guy.
Interesting because the two apparently get along well together but not so well that one of them won't have to go, apparently. But more interesting because no matter which one wins, 60 Minutes will likely never become the ratings and influence powerhouse that it was 30 years ago — and there's still supposed to be this life-and-death struggle between the two bosses over turning it around.
So watch your back, Bari.
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