60 Minutes, News Media | featured news

CBS’s “60 Minutes” spent its hour Sunday night doing the thing it had always dreaded but nevertheless was well prepared to do: sending off Mike Wallace.

CBS newsman Mike Wallace, the dogged, merciless reporter and interviewer who took on politicians, celebrities and other public figures in a 60-year career highlighted by the on-air confrontations that helped make "60 Minutes" the most successful primetime television news program ever, has died. He was 93.

Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old. Just a month ago, Rooney delivered his last regular essay on the CBS newsmagazine. CBS said he died Friday night in New York from complications from a recent surgery.

Andy Rooney insisted he's not retiring. Even so, he delivered his final weekly essay on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, his last in his 33 years with the newsmagazine. It was a moment, he said he has dreaded.

CBS says Scott Pelley will take over as its evening news anchor, starting on June 6. The network on Tuesday announced the expected selection of Pelley, the veteran "60 Minutes" reporter, to replace Katie Couric on the "CBS Evening News." Couric is pursuing a syndicated talk show, but hasn't said where she will be working next. The date for her final CBS broadcast has not been set.

Some of Scott Pelley’s colleagues worry that becoming the anchor of the third-placed “CBS Evening News” be a demotion.

Mr. Hewitt changed the course of broadcast news by creating the television magazine program for CBS.