Stephen Colbert’s daughter, Madeleine Carlisle, has jumped ship from CBS as the network’s turmoil continues.
Carlisle, 30, worked as an associate producer on the network’s flagship newsmagazine 60 Minutes for almost four years, according to her LinkedIn.
Now, amid a slew of firings and hirings under CBS News’ controversial new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, Carlisle has resigned, according to the media news site Status.
A Yale graduate, she was previously an intern on the series in 2017 and has also worked at The Atlantic and Time.
Her father’s late night show famously concluded in May after 33 years on air. It originated in 1993 with David Letterman, who later passed the torch to Colbert in 2015.
The network announced its cancellation last July, just days after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for reaching a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over accusations that its newsmagazine series 60 Minutes deceptively edited a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS staffers told The Independent it was a continuation of the “Trump shakedown” that began with the settlement.
60 Minutes, meanwhile, has been in turmoil since Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS’s news division last year, suffering internal tensions, sliding ratings and a series of departures — notably losing anchor Scott Pelley — as the new boss tried to address its alleged liberal bias.
Weiss appointed Nick Bilton, a 49-year-old tech journalist with no prior broadcast experience, as the long-running investigative news show’s executive producer in May.
He faced a tumultuous start, immediately clashing with veteran anchor Scott Pelley, 68, who accused Weiss of “murdering” 60 Minutes during a fiery meeting. Bilton then fired Pelley in June after accusing him of hijacking his first meeting with staff.
Just a month earlier, Weiss dismissed executive producer Tanya Simon as well as correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi in a single day.
The production team has also seen a wave of departures. Executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, longtime producers Michael Gavshon and Henry Schuster, and producer Nichole Marks have all left the show recently.
The staff exits follow the high-profile departure of Anderson Cooper, who left 60 Minutes after growing disillusioned with what sources described as a shift toward more Trump administration-friendly coverage at CBS News.
In his emotional farewell, Cooper stressed the importance of editorial “independence” as a key virtue amid tensions at the network.
Cooper said: “I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes.”
