In the meantime, Bari’s latest move is yet another Rorschach test. Her supporters champion her moxie and believe she’s saving 60 from future linear wreckage. Her detractors fear that she’s suddenly undermined the one TV news show that didn’t need saving. In the end, both sides have a point. Yes, even the most successful news show can’t endure without multiplatform innovation. At the same time, risking the reputation of the brand itself complicates the effort.

Amid this overhaul, Bari has lost Anderson Cooper and fired Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega—all three of whom made their discontent known on the way out—as well as E.P. Tanya Simon and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich. Nine million people watch 60 Minutes. But, in the Bari era, far more are now familiar with the controversy surrounding her leadership.

So… why did she hire Nick? Even if you accept the need for bold product innovation at 60 Minutes, it’s hard to grasp how a former columnist with IMDb credits fits the bill. Nick’s additional bona fide is that he’s a name-brand journalist and likeminded friend of Bari and her partner Nellie Bowles from their L.A. days, which calls to mind David Zaslav’s decision to tap Licht as C.E.O. of CNN because he knew him from his Hamptons garden parties. While Bari and Nick don’t really have overlapping politics, one assumes that they probably have fairly aligned views of traditional media and its denizens, as well as a mutual impish delight for pot-stirring.

But the Nick hire also illuminates some larger themes of the late-stage linear era. One of the inherent conundrums of this age is that the historically qualified executives either no longer want these jobs at the revised salaries or, alternatively, can’t persuade the new principals that they’re sufficiently qualified to lead amid profound change. Nick, on the other hand, was seduced by a chance to return to the industry and make solid comp. “There was no part of me that wanted to come back to journalism,” he told me during our conversation. “But when Bari approached me about it, I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

Nick told me that his true contribution to 60 Minutes would come from his ability to leverage new platforms to expand the brand’s influence beyond one hour on Sundays, where it has been “underutilized,” in his words. This will include new digital programs, podcasts, and social-ready content. “There are 100 people at CBS who know broadcast,” he said. “I know how to tell stories in every different format.” That may be true, but there’s scant evidence to suggest he knows how to tell stories on these platforms any better than other journalists with a mic and an iPhone—let alone evidence that he’ll be able to wrangle TV egos, navigate production schedules, and lead the old broadcast folks to their multiplatform salvation. But he does seem to know what Bari wants, and that counts for something these days. Anyway, that’s what the money is for.

On some level, this was obviously an intentionally destabilizing hire—a sign that leadership views institutional prestige and modest ratings growth as wholly insufficient in an increasingly fragmented media environment. And, to be fair, they’re probably right. But media is not software, Larry’s native terrain. It’s a deceptively simple business built atop often complex, endorphin-driven, and frequently challenging creative people.

Arguably, Nick’s greatest asset is that he’s one of those people. Like many talented journalists, he’s instinctive, aggressive, suspicious of concentrated wealth and power, deeply thoughtful, and—it has yet to be noted—has been extremely critical of Trump in his journalism. But he’s also a creative who has never had to architect a vision beyond his own output and workload—his own story or book or film. In truth, the performance management, operational drudgery, commercial considerations, and day-to-day mechanics of TV can be handled by others. But the real challenge will be imposing the creative instincts that fueled his own success onto an entire institution, which requires a far different skill set. And of course, being a tech journalist is not the same thing as being a technologist. Nick started his media career in the Times’s R&D lab, but he has never overseen step-function transformation at scale inside a major public company.

In many ways, Nick’s challenge is a microcosm of Bari’s own: He’s stepping into a heavily scrutinized and politically charged arena with a lot of certainty and no operational expertise. I don’t begrudge him for taking the leap. But it may have been smarter to feign humility, get to work, put some points on the board, and then start talking a big game. Instead, he’s made a tall order even taller. But I’m sure he’s already gotten an earful about this from observers and agents and trouble-starters, and it won’t be the last time. Welcome to the business, Nick!