DRUDGE REPORT 2002®
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 24, 2002 18:04:25 ET XXXXX
CBS BATTLES TO OUST 60 MINS HEWITT; EXECUTIVE PRODUCER VOWS TO STAY UNTIL DEATH!
A battle royale appears to be in the script at CBS NEWS where executives are determined to push one of the founders of television news, 60 MINUTES executive producer Don Hewitt, off the marquee by season's end -- but not before Hewitt has vowed to stay where he is, until death!
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Simply letting go is an untenable notion for Hewitt, age 80.
"One of the things you learn as you go through life is life is finite," he tells Monday NEW YORK TIMES. "It ends. No way you're going to live forever. All you want to do is end in a good place. I can't think of a better place than right here."
CBS NEWS President Andrew Heyward offers that Hewitt will be more than welcome at CBS as an "emeritus" news executive. "I hope he works here forever," Heyward explains.
Hewitt fights back: "I don't want to be an emeritus anything. I just want to go on doing what I know how to do, I think, better than anyone in the business."
Hewitt finds his 60 MINUTES contract up and expired in February at the House he and Paley built. Ironic. In the middle of the sweeps.
The network's plans to replace Hewitt "has become a touchy, behind-the-scenes drama that executives talk about in hushed tones," Jim Rutenberg will report in the TIMES, according to newsroom sources. By giving the nudge to one of the news division's founding fathers, CBS could risk "an ugly, public rift with a broadcast legend."
Some on the show's staff said they believed the situation could be solved if Hewitt would agree to phase in a successor.
Escalating...
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Filed By Matt Drudge
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