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| 60 Minutes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | News magazine |
| Created by | Don Hewitt |
| Presented by | SeeCorrespondents section |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 57 |
| No. of episodes | 2500+(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 60 minutes, including commercials |
| Production company | CBS News Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 24, 1968 (1968-09-24) – present |
| Related | |
| 60 Minutes (Australian TV program) 60 Minutes (New Zealand TV programme) 48 Hours Face the Nation CBS News Roundup | |
60 Minutes is an American televisionnews magazine broadcast on theCBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created byDon Hewitt andBill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. In 2002,60 Minutes was ranked number six onTV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time",[1] and in 2013, it was ranked number 24 on the magazine's list of the "60 Best Series of All Time".[2] In 2023,Variety ranked60 Minutes as the twentieth-greatest TV show of all time.[3]The New York Times has called it "one of the most esteemed news magazines onAmerican television".[4]
The program began in 1968 as a bi-weekly television show hosted byMike Wallace andHarry Reasoner. The two sat on opposite sides of the cream-colored set, though the set's color was later changed to black, the color still in use. The show used a large stopwatch during transition periods and highlighted its topics throughchroma key—both techniques are still used. In 1972, the program began airing from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.Eastern time, although this time was sometimes disrupted by broadcasting ofNFL games on Sundays. Since then, the show has generally kept the Sunday evening format, although the start time has occasionally been shifted. The program generally starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. If sports programming is airing that afternoon,60 Minutes starts at 7:30 p.m. Eastern or at the game's conclusion.
The show is hosted by correspondents who do not share screen time with each other. Full-time hosts includeLesley Stahl,Scott Pelley, andBill Whitaker. Severalspinoffs have been made, including international formats of the show.
The program employed a magazine format similar to that of the Canadian programW5, which had premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most importantinvestigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and "gotcha journalism" visits to the home or office of an investigative subject.[6][7] Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.[6]
Initially,60 Minutes aired as a bi-weekly show hosted byMike Wallace andHarry Reasoner debuting on September 24th, 1968, and alternating weeks with otherCBS News productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m.Eastern Time. The first edition, described by Reasoner in the opening as a "kind of a magazine for television," featured the following segments:
The first "magazine-cover"chroma key was a photo of two helmeted policemen (for the Clark interview segment). Wallace and Reasoner sat in chairs on opposite sides of the set, which had a cream-colored backdrop; the more famous black backdrop (which is still used as of 2020[update]) did not appear until the following year. The logo was inHelvetica type with the word "Minutes" spelled in all lower-case letters; the logo most associated with the show (rendered in Eurostile type with "Minutes" spelled in uppercase) did not appear until about 1974. Further, to extend the magazine motif, the producers added a "Vol. xx, No. xx" to the title display on the chroma key; modeled after the volume and issue number identifications featured in print magazines, this was used until about 1971. The trademark stopwatch, however, did not appear on the inaugural broadcast; it would not debut until several episodes later.Alpo dog food was the sole sponsor of the first program.[8]
Don Hewitt, who had been a producer of theCBS Evening News withWalter Cronkite, sought out Wallace as a stylistic contrast to Reasoner.[9] According to one historian of the show, the idea of the format was to make the hosts the reporters, to always feature stories that were of national importance but focused upon individuals involved with, or in conflict with, those issues, and to limit the reports' airtime to around 13 minutes.[9] However, the initial season was troubled by lack of network confidence, as the program did not garner ratings much higher than that of other CBS News documentaries. As a rule, during that era, news programming duringprime time lost money; networks mainly scheduledpublic affairs programs in prime time in order to bolster the prestige of their news departments, and thus boost ratings for the regular evening newscasts, which were seen by far more people than documentaries and the like.60 Minutes struggled under that stigma during its first three years.
Changes to60 Minutes came fairly early in the program's history. When Reasoner left CBS to co-anchorABC'sevening newscast (he would return to CBS and60 Minutes in 1978),Morley Safer joined the team in 1970, and he took over Reasoner's duties of reporting less aggressive stories. However, when Richard Nixon began targeting press access and reporting, even Safer, formerly the CBS News bureau chief inSaigon andLondon, began to do "hard" investigative reports, and during the 1970–71 season alone,60 Minutes reported oncluster bombs, theSouth Vietnamese Army,draft dodgers,Nigeria, the Middle East, andNorthern Ireland.[10]
By 1971, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced thePrime Time Access Rule, which freed local network affiliates in the top 50 markets (in practice, the entire network) to take a half-hour of prime time from the networks on Mondays through Saturdays and one full hour on Sundays. Because nearly all affiliates found production costs for the FCC's intended goal of increased public affairs programming very high and the ratings (and by association, advertising revenues) low, making it mostly unprofitable, the FCC created an exception for network-authored news and public affairs shows. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS found a prime place for60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.Central Time) on Sundays in January 1972.[10]
This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodateCBS telecasts of late afternoonNational Football League (NFL) games,60 Minutes went on hiatus during the fall from 1972 to 1975 (and the summer of 1972). This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous "Heidi Bowl" incident onNBC in November 1968. Despite the irregular scheduling, the program's hard-hitting reports attracted a steadily growing audience, particularly during the waning days of theVietnam War and the gripping events of theWatergate scandal; at that time, few if any other major network news shows did in-depth investigative reporting to the degree carried out by60 Minutes. Eventually, during the summers of 1973 through 1975, CBS did allow the program back onto the prime time schedule proper, on Fridays in 1973 and Sundays the two years thereafter, as a replacement for programs aired during the regular television season.
It was only when the FCC returned an hour to the networks on Sundays (for news or family programming), which had been taken away from them four years earlier, in a 1975 amendment to the Access Rule, that CBS finally found a viable permanent timeslot for60 Minutes. When the family-oriented dramaThree for the Road ended after a 12-week run in the fall, the news magazine took its place at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time (6:00 p.m. Central) on December 7, 1975, and has been aired at that time since then, making it not only the longest-running prime time program currently in production, but also the television program (excluding daily programs such as evening newscasts ormorning news-talk shows) broadcasting for the longest length of time at a single time period each week in US television history.[citation needed]
This move, and the addition of then-White House correspondentDan Rather to the reporting team, made the program into a strong ratings hit and, eventually, a general cultural phenomenon. This was no less than a stunning reversal of the historically poor ratings performances of documentary programs on network television. By 1976,60 Minutes became the top-rated program on Sunday nights in the US. By 1979, it had achieved the #1 spot among all television programs in theNielsen ratings, unheard of before for a news broadcast in prime time. This success translated into great profits for CBS; advertising rates increased from $17,000 per 30-second spot in 1975 to $175,000 in 1982.[11]
The program sometimes does not start until after 7:00 p.m. Eastern, due largely toCBS Sports live sporting events. At the conclusion of an NFL game,60 Minutes will air in its entirety and delay all subsequent programs. However, in the Pacific time zone,60 Minutes is always able to start at its scheduled time as live sports coverage ends earlier in the afternoon. The program's success has also led CBS Sports to schedule events (such as the final round of theMasters Tournament and thePGA Championship and the second round and regional final games of theNCAA men's basketball tournament) leading into60 Minutes and the rest of the network's primetime lineup for the night (as CBS never airs any sports programming on Sundays in primetime except for the AFC Divisional Round, AFC Championship Game, or theSuper Bowl).
Starting in the 2012–2013 season, in order to accommodate a new NFL scheduling policy that the second game of a doubleheader start at 4:25 p.m., CBS changed the scheduled start time of60 Minutes to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time (or game conclusion) for Eastern and Central Time Zone stations which are receiving a game in that window. The start time remains at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific (or game conclusion if a late single game is airing in the eastern markets) on stations which are not broadcasting a late game in a given week (or for Western time zones even if a doubleheader airs).[12] Since the 2023–2024 season, the show began to have occasional 90-minute episodes.[13]
60 Minutes is also simulcast on several formerCBS Radio flagship stations.WBBM in Chicago,KRLD in Dallas,WWJ in Detroit,KNX in Los Angeles,KYW in Philadelphia,KCBS in San Francisco (all owned byAudacy) andWBZ in Boston (owned byiHeartMedia). Anchorage-based stationKFQD airs60 Minutes as part of its affiliation with local CBS stationKAUU. When it airs locally on their sister CBS Television Network affiliate, even in the Central and Eastern time zones, the show is aired at the top of the hour at 7:00 p.m./6:00 p.m. Central (barring local sports play-by-play pre-emptions and breaking news coverage) no matter how long the show is delayed on CBS Television, resulting in radio listeners often hearing the show on those stations ahead of the television broadcast. An audio version of each broadcast without advertising began to be distributed viapodcast and theiTunes Store, starting with the broadcast on September 23, 2007.[14] Video from60 Minutes (including full episodes) is also made available for streaming several hours after the program's initial broadcast on CBSNews.com andParamount+.
60 Minutes normally has three long-form news stories without superimposed graphics. There is acommercial break between two stories. Each story is introduced from a set with a backdrop resembling pages from a magazine story on the same topic. The program undertakes its own investigations and follows up on investigations instigated by national newspapers and other sources. Unlike its competitor20/20, as well as traditional local and national news programs, the60 Minutes journalists never share the screen with (or speak to) other60 Minutes journalists on camera atany time. This creates a strong psychological sense of intimacy between the journalist and the television viewer.[citation needed]
60 Minutes blends the journalism of the seminal 1950s CBS seriesSee It Now withEdward R. Murrow (for which Hewitt served as director in its first years) and the personality profiles of another Murrow program,Person to Person. In Hewitt's words,60 Minutes blends "higher Murrow" and "lower Murrow".[15]
For most of the 1970s, the program includedPoint/Counterpoint, in which aliberal and aconservative commentator debated an issue. This segment originally featuredJames J. Kilpatrick representing the conservative side andNicholas von Hoffman[16] for the liberal, withShana Alexander[17] taking over for von Hoffman after he departed in 1974.[16] The segment was an innovation that caught the public imagination as a live version of competing editorials. In 1979, Alexander asked Hewitt to raise the $350 a week pay; Hewitt declined, and the segment ended.[16]
Point/Counterpoint was lampooned by the NBC comedy seriesSaturday Night Live, which featuredJane Curtin andDan Aykroyd as TV news reporters. Their segment featured a debate in comically complete abandonment of rhetorical decorum, with Aykroyd announcing the topic, Curtin making an opening statement, then Aykroyd typically retorting withad hominem attacks, such as "Jane, you ignorant slut" and Curtin responding "Dan, you pompous ass";[18][19] in the filmAirplane! (1980), in which thefaux Kilpatrick argues in favor of the plane crashing, stating "they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into"; and in an earliersketch comedy film,The Kentucky Fried Movie, where the segment was called Count/Pointercount.
A similar concept was revived briefly in March 2003 featuringBob Dole andBill Clinton, former opponents in the1996 presidential election. The pair agreed to do ten segments (titledClinton/Dole andDole/Clinton in alternating weeks), but these did not continue into the 2003–2004 fall season. Reports indicated that the segments were considered too gentlemanly, in the style of the earlierPoint/Counterpoint, and lacked the feistiness ofCrossfire.[20]
From 1978 to 2011, the program usually ended with a (usually light-hearted and humorous) commentary byAndy Rooney expounding on topics of wildly varying import, ranging from international politics, to economics, and to personal philosophy on everyday life. One recurring topic was measuring the amount ofcoffee in coffee cans.[21]
Rooney's pieces, particularly one in which he referred to actorMel Gibson as a "wacko", on occasion led to complaints from viewers. In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too muchalcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions,cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death."[22] He wrote an explanatory letter to agay organization after being ordered not to do so. After four weeks without Rooney,60 Minutes lost 20% of its audience. CBS management concluded that it was in their best interest to have Rooney return immediately.[23]
Rooney published several books documenting his contributions to the program, includingYears of Minutes andA Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. Rooney retired from60 Minutes, delivering his final commentary on October 2, 2011; it was his 1,097th commentary over his 34-year career on the program. He died one month later on November 4, 2011. On November 13, 2011,60 Minutes featured an hour-long tribute to Rooney and his career and included a rebroadcast of his final commentary segment.
The opening sequence features a60 Minutes "magazine cover" with the show's trademark, anAristostopwatch,[24] intercut with preview clips of the episode's stories. The sequence ends with each of the correspondents and hosts introducing themselves. The last host who appears (currentlyScott Pelley) then says, "Those stories tonight on60 Minutes". When Rooney was a prominent fixture, the final line was "Those stories and Andy Rooney, tonight on60 Minutes". Before that, and whenever Rooney did not appear, the final line was "Those stories and more, tonight on60 Minutes".
The stopwatch counts off each of the broadcast's 60 minutes, starting from zero at the beginning of each show. It is seen during the opening title sequence, before each commercial break, and at the tail-end of the closing credits, and each time it appears it displays (within reasonable accuracy) the elapsed time of the episode to that point.
On October 29, 2006, the opening sequence changed from a black background, which had been used for over a decade, to white. Also, the gray background for the Aristo stopwatch in the "cover" changed to red, the color for the title text changed to white, and the stopwatch itself changed from the diagonal position it had been oriented in for 31 years to an upright position.[citation needed]
Videos and transcripts of60 Minutes editions, as well as clips that were not included in the broadcast are available on the program's website. In September 2010, the program launched a website called "60 Minutes Overtime", in which stories broadcast on-air are discussed in further detail.[25] Previously the show had a partnership withYahoo! for distribution of extra content.[26]
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Commentators for60 Minutes have included:
Based on viewershipratings,60 Minutes is the most successful program in American television history since it was moved into its present timeslot in 1975. For five seasons it was the year's top program, a feat matched by thesitcomsAll in the Family andThe Cosby Show, and surpassed only by the reality competition seriesAmerican Idol, which had been the #1 show for eight consecutive seasons from the 2003–2004 television season up to the 2010–2011 season.60 Minutes was a top ten show for 23 seasons in a row (1977–2000), an unsurpassed record, and has made the Top 20 for every season since the 1976–1977 season, except from 2005 to 2008.[36]
60 Minutes first broke into the Nielsen Top 20 during the 1976–77 season. The following season, it was the fourth-most-watched program, and by the 1979–80 season, it was the number one show.[36] During the 21st century, it remained among the top 20 programs in the Nielsen ratings, and the highest-rated news magazine.[37]
On November 16, 2008, the edition featuring an interview with President-electBarack Obama, earned a total viewership of 25.1 million viewers.[38]
On October 6, 2013, the broadcast (which was delayed by 44 minutes that evening due to aDenver Broncos–Dallas Cowboys NFL game) drew 17.94 million viewers; retaining 63% of the 28.32 million viewers of its lead-in, and making it the most watched60 Minutes broadcast since December 16, 2012.[39][40]
On December 1, 2013, the broadcast (delayed 50 minutes due to a Broncos–Kansas City Chiefs game) was watched by 18.09 million viewers, retaining 66% of its NFL lead-in (which earned 28.11 million viewers during the 7:00 p.m. hour).[41]
On March 25, 2018, the edition featuringStormy Daniels giving details on her alleged affair with PresidentDonald Trump drew 22.1 million viewers, the most since the 2008 Obama interview. The broadcast was delayed due to theNCAA men's basketball regional final on CBS betweenKansas andDuke going to overtime.[42][43]
As of June 26, 2017[update],60 Minutes had won a total of 138Emmy Awards, a record for American primetime programs.[36][44]
The program has won 20Peabody Awards for segments including "All in the Family", an investigation into abuses by government and military contractors; "The CIA's Cocaine", which uncovered CIA involvement in drug smuggling, "Friendly Fire", a report on incidents offriendly fire in theGulf War; "The Duke Rape Case", an investigation into accusations of rape at an off campus lacrosse team party in 2006; and "The Killings in Haditha", an investigation into the killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines.[45]
The show received an Investigative Reporter and Editor medal for their segment "The Osprey", documenting a Marine cover-up of deadly flaws in theV-22 Osprey aircraft.[46]
In 1983, a report by Morley Safer, "Lenell Geter's in Jail", helped exonerate a Texas man who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for armed robbery.[47]
As of 2021[update],60 Minutes is the longest continuously running program of any genre scheduled during American network prime time. It has aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays since December 7, 1975 (although since 2012, it moves to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays if CBS has a late NFL game).
Meet the Press debuted in 1947 in prime time, but it has been a daytime program since 1965. TheWalt Disney anthology television series, which premiered in 1954, and theHallmark Hall of Fame, which has aired since 1951, have aired longer than60 Minutes, but none of them has aired in prime time continually.[citation needed]
The show has been praised for landmark journalism and received many awards. However, it has also become embroiled in some controversy, including (in order of appearance):
On November 23, 1986,60 Minutes aired a segmentgreenlit by Hewitt, concerning theAudi 5000 automobile, a popularGerman luxury car. The story covered a supposed problem of "unintended acceleration" when the brake pedal was pushed, with emotional interviews with six people who suedAudi (unsuccessfully) after they crashed their cars, including one woman whose six-year-old son had been killed. In the60 Minutes segment footage was shown of anAudi 5000 with the accelerator "moving down on its own", accelerating the car. It later emerged that an expert witness employed by one of the plaintiffs modified the accelerator with a concealed device, causing the "unintended acceleration".[48] Independent investigators concluded that this "unintended acceleration" was most likely due to driver error, where the driver let their foot slip off the brake and onto the accelerator. Tests byAudi and independent journalists showed that even with thethrottle wide open, the car would simply stall if the brakes were actually being used.[49]
The incident devastated Audi sales in the United States, which did not rebound for 15 years. The initial incidents which prompted the report were found by theNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration andTransport Canada to have been attributable to operator error, where car owners had depressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. CBS issued a partial retraction, without acknowledging the test results of involved government agencies.[50] Years later,Dateline NBC, a rival to60 Minutes, was found guilty of similar tactics regarding the fuel tank integrity ofGeneral Motors pickup trucks.[51]
A segment aired in December, 1980, concerning the allegedJeep CJ-5high rollover risk as demonstrated inInsurance Institute for Highway Safety testing. The demonstration was aJeep rolling over during an extreme turn at 20 mph (32 km/h), something that would not cause other cars to roll over. It was deemed by60 Minutes reporters as the "most dangerous thing on four wheels". After the show aired, many people were concerned about the safety of the vehicle, and following sales plummeted. This tarnished the reputation of theJeep CJ; the model was discontinued in 1986. Years after the incident occurred, it was found that theInsurance Institute for Highway Safety had attempted to roll the car 435 times, only having 8 rollovers. The show had also failed to mention/show that there were weights hanging on spots of the vehicle that had caused the vehicle to have a higher rollover risk.[52]
In February 1989,60 Minutes aired a report by theNatural Resources Defense Council claiming that the use ofdaminozide (Alar) onapples presented an unacceptably high health risk to consumers. Apple sales dropped and CBS was sued unsuccessfully by apple growers.[53] Alar was subsequently banned for use on food crops in the U.S. by theEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA).
On March 3, 1991,60 Minutes broadcast "Werner Erhard," which dealt with controversies involving Erhard's personal and business life. A year after the60 Minutes piece aired, Erhard filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that the broadcast contained several "false, misleading and defamatory" statements about him. One month after filing the lawsuit, Erhard filed for dismissal.[54] Erhard later toldLarry King in an interview that he dropped the suit after receiving legal advice telling him that in order to win it, he had to prove not only that CBS knew the allegations were false but also that CBS acted withmalice.[55] After numerous independent journalists exposed untruths and factual inaccuracies in the story[56][57] the segment was removed by CBS from its archives, with a disclaimer: "This segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal orcopyright reasons."[58]
In 1995, formerBrown & Williamson Vice President for Research and DevelopmentJeffrey Wigand provided information to60 Minutes producerLowell Bergman pertaining to B&W having systematically hidden the health risks of their cigarettes(see transcription of Dr. Wigand's depositionhere). Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents (such asfiberglass andammonia) with the intent of enhancing the effect ofnicotine. Bergman began to produce a piece based upon the information, but ran into opposition from Don Hewitt who, along with CBS lawyers, feared a billion-dollar lawsuit from Brown and Williamson fortortious interference for encouraging Wigand to violate hisnon-disclosure agreement. A number of people at CBS would benefit from a sale of CBS toWestinghouse Electric Corporation, including the head of CBS lawyers and CBS News. Also, because of the interview, the son of CBS PresidentLaurence Tisch (who also controlledLorillard Tobacco) was among the people from thebig tobacco companies at risk of being caught having committed perjury. Due to Hewitt's hesitation,The Wall Street Journal instead broke Wigand's story. The60 Minutes piece was eventually aired with substantially altered content and minus some of the most damning evidence against B&W. Theexposé of the incident was published in an article inVanity Fair byMarie Brenner, entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much".[59]
The New York Times wrote that "the traditions ofEdward R. Murrow and "60 Minutes" itself were diluted in the process,"[60] though the newspaper revised the quote slightly, suggesting that60 Minutes and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow". The incident was turned into a seven-timesOscar-nominated feature film entitledThe Insider, directed byMichael Mann and starringRussell Crowe as Wigand,Al Pacino as Bergman, andChristopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. Wallace denounced the portrayal of him as inaccurate to his stance on the issue.[61]
In 1997,60 Minutes alleged that agents of theU.S. Customs Service ignored drug trafficking across theMexico–United States border atSan Diego.[62] The only evidence was a memorandum apparently written by Rudy Camacho, who was the head of the San Diego branch office. Based on this memo, CBS alleged that Camacho had allowed trucks belonging to a particular firm to cross the border unimpeded. Mike Horner, a former Customs Service employee, had passed the memos on to60 Minutes, and even provided a copy with an official stamp. Camacho was not consulted about the piece, and his career was devastated in the immediate term as his own department placed suspicion on him. In the end, it turned out that Horner had forged the documents as an act of revenge for his treatment within the Customs Service. Camacho sued CBS and settled for an undisclosed amount of money in damages.60 Minutes founderDon Hewitt was forced to issue an on-air retraction.[63]
A legal battle between archaeologists and theUmatilla tribe over the remains of a skeleton, nicknamedKennewick Man, was reported by60 Minutes on October 25, 1998, to which the Umatilla tribe reacted negatively. The tribe considered the segment heavily biased in favor of the scientists, cutting out important arguments, such as explanations of theNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.[64] The report focused heavily on the racial politics of the controversy and also added inflammatory arguments, such as questioning the legitimacy ofNative American sovereignty[65] – much of the racial focus of the segment was later reported to have been either unfounded and/or misinterpreted.[66]
On March 12, 2000,60 Minutes aired an interview withOklahoma City bomberTimothy McVeigh. At the time, McVeigh had already been convicted and sentenced to death for the bombing of theAlfred P. Murrah Federal Building in April 1995, and the subsequent deaths of 168 people. On the program, McVeigh was given the opportunity to vent against the government.[67] Following the program, a federal policy called the Special Confinement Unit Media Policy was enacted prohibiting face-to-face interviews withdeath row inmates.[68] A federal inmate challenged the policy inHammer v.Ashcroft, under which theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the prison policy. In March 2010, theUnited States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case, and the policy limiting media access to death row inmates remains in place. CBS refuses to show the entire interview, and has stated no reasons.[69]
In recent years, the program has been accused of promoting books, films, and interviews with celebrities who are published or promoted by sister businesses of media conglomerate Paramount Skydance and its predecessors since 2000 and publisherSimon & Schuster, without disclosing the journalistic conflict-of-interest to viewers.[70] This includes a 2025 interview withDana White, who is promoting an upcomingCBS Sports event on July 4, 2026,UFC White House.
The Killian documents controversy were 6 documents critical ofGeorge W. Bush's service in theTexas Air National Guard from 1972-73. Four of these documents were presented as authentic in a60 Minutes Wednesday episode aired on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents. Subsequently, several typewriter and typography experts concluded the documents are forgeries, as have some media sources. No forensic document examiners or typography experts authenticated the documents, which may not be possible without original documents. The provider of the documents, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, claimed to have burned the originals after faxing copies to CBS.[citation needed] The incident was dramatized for the feature-length film,Truth.
On March 29, 2009, a segment titled "The Internet Is Infected" aired on60 Minutes, which featured an interview with Don Jackson, a data protection professional forSecureWorks. Jackson himself declared in the program that "a part of [his] job is to know the enemy". However, during the interview, Jackson showed a photo of Finnish upper-level comprehensive school pupils and misidentified them as Russian hackers.[71] In the photo, one of the children wears a jacket with the coat of arms of Finland on it. Another one wears a cap which clearly has the logo ofKarjala, a Finnish brand of beer, on it. The principal of the school inTaivalkoski confirmed that the photo was taken at the school about five years before the program was broadcast.[72]
The photo's exact origins are unknown, but it is widely known in Finland, having been originally posted to the Finnish social networking site IRC-Galleria in the early 2000s. It spread all over Finnish internet communities, and even originated a couple of patriotically titled (but intentionally misspelled) mock sites.[72][73]60 Minutes later issued a correction and on-air apology.[when?]
After the2012 Benghazi attack,60 Minutes aired a report by correspondentLara Logan on October 27, 2013, in which British military contractor Dylan Davies, identified by CBS under the pseudonym "Morgan Jones", described racing to the Benghazi compound several hours after the main assault was over, scaling a 12-foot wall and knocking out a lone fighter with the butt of a rifle. He also claimed to have visited a Benghazi hospital earlier that night where he saw AmbassadorChristopher Stevens' body.
In the days following the report, Davies' personal actions were challenged.[74] The FBI, which had interviewed Davies several times and considered him a credible source,[75] said the account Davies had given them was different from what he told60 Minutes. Davies stood by his story,[76] but the inconsistency ultimately prompted60 Minutes to conclude it was a mistake to include Davies in their report. The show issued a correction.[77]
After the correction, a journalistic review was conducted by Al Ortiz, CBS News' executive director of standards and practices. Ortiz determined that red flags about Davies' account were missed.[78] Davies had told the program and written in his book that he told an alternative version of his actions to his employer, who he said had demanded that he stay inside his Benghazi villa as the attack unfolded. That alternative version was shared with U.S. authorities; 60 Minutes was unable to prove the story Davies had told them was true.[79]
Davies' book,The Embassy House, was published two days after the60 Minutes report, by Threshold Editions, part of the Simon and Schuster unit of CBS. It was pulled from shelves once60 Minutes issued its correction.[80]
On November 26, 2013, Logan was forced to take a leave of absence due to the errors in the Benghazi report.[79] Logan returned to work months later.[81]
On December 15, 2013,60 Minutes aired a report on the workings of theNational Security Agency (NSA) that was widely criticized[82] as misleading[83] and a biased "puff piece".[84][85] Complaints included that the Agency's perspective was presented unchallenged and that privacy campaigners were not invited to present the counter-arguments to the Agency's claims.[82] These claims included NSA denials of "potentially extralegal" data collection. The story was reported byJohn Miller, who once worked in the office of theDirector of National Intelligence.
On March 30, 2014,60 Minutes presented a story on theTesla Model S luxury electricautomobile, with Scott Pelley conducting an interview with CEOElon Musk concerning the car brand as well as his companySpaceX. Within a day, the automotiveblog siteJalopnik reported that the sounds accompanying footage of the car shown during the story were actually sounds from a traditional gasoline engine dubbed over the footage, when in reality the electric car makes no such sounds.[86] CBS released a statement explaining that the sound was the result of an audio editing error, and subsequently removed the sound from the online version of the piece. However, several news outlets, as well as Jalopnik itself, expressed doubt over the authenticity of this explanation, noting the similar scandal involvingTesla Motors and theNew York Times in 2013.[87][88]
After the resignation of CBS news headLes Moonves, an investigation into sexual harassment at CBS, including60 Minutes, uncovered evidence of long-running sexual harassment issues stemming from behavior of producersJeff Fager andDon Hewitt.[89][90]
In April 2021, Sharyn Alfonsi's story in60 Minutes onFlorida GovernorRon DeSantis and the state'sCOVID-19 vaccine rollout faced criticism for suggesting that a donation by the supermarket chainPublix to DeSantis' re-election campaign influenced Florida's partnership with Publix stores forvaccine distribution.[91][92][93] Subsequently,Palm Beach County MayorDave Kerner accused60 Minutes of reporting "intentionally false" information,[92] while Karol Markowicz of theNew York Post characterized Alfonsi as coming off as a "political activist" in the segment.[94] A spokesperson for60 Minutes defended the story for having included DeSantis' response to the accusation.[91]PolitiFact stated that by omitting DeSantis' remarks on why the state partnered with Publix to distribute vaccines, the clip could be considered to be "deceptive editing".[95]
On May 16, 2021,Anderson Cooper's story in60 Minutes on the flaws in facial recognition technology used by the police resulting in incorrect identification of people of color received backlash for denying credit to the black female researchers who pioneered the field. The segment was criticized by theAlgorithmic Justice League for "deliberately excluding the groundbreaking and award-winning work of prominent black women AI researchersJoy Buolamwini,Dr. Timnit Gebru, andInioluwa Deborah Raji".[96] The segment was called out for its hypocrisy for failing to credit black women for their pioneering work in a segment highlighting how facial recognition software often leaves out black, Asian, and female faces. CBS later issued a statement explaining that these researchers were not included due to time restrictions of the segment.[97]
On December 7, 2024,Donald Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS and its parent company,Paramount Global, alleging that the network deceptively edited an interview with Vice PresidentKamala Harris on60 Minutes to sway public opinion in her favor. The lawsuit, submitted in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, claims that the editing distorted Harris's response regarding Middle East policy. Both parties agreed to enter mediation, coinciding with aplanned $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, which requires approval from theFederal Communications Commission (FCC). Within Paramount, there was reportedly internal disagreement over whether to settle the dispute, as the producers of60 Minutes maintained their conduct was appropriate and opposed offering an apology.[98] In early April 2025, Trump expressed his "hope" that the FCC would punish CBS for running on60 Minutes stories on Ukraine and Greenland that he disapproved of. Trump filed a lawsuit in Texas accusing CBS of violating the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection law.[99] In July 2025, Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement. As part of the deal, the company did not apologize or admit wrongdoing, agreed to release full transcripts of interviews with future U.S. presidential candidates after they air, and stated that the funds will go toTrump's future presidential library.[100]
On April 22, 2025, Bill Owens resigned as the show's executive producer, telling staff he believed he no longer had journalistic independence. He said in a memo that the show would continue to cover thesecond Trump administration the same way it has covered others.[101][102] Some said that if the lawsuit by Trump is settled, it would "continue a trend" of institutions giving "in to his demands to avoid punishments such as losing federal funding or access to federal buildings."[103] Others reported that while the show's staff was "shaken" by the departure of Owens, no one else was expected to resign because it "would be seen as giving in to Trump," with executive editorTanya Simon, daughter ofBob Simon, beginning to run the show "on an interim basis," following the resignation of Owens.[104]
In the "Last Minute" segment of the show on April 27, 2025,[105]Scott Pelley praised Owens for ensuring that the types of controversial stories the show had covered since its creation, most recently theGaza war and the Trump administration, were covered fairly. However, he claimed that recent changes, namely increased supervision—but not censorship—of the show's content by Paramount due to its desire to complete their merger, had led Owens to feel that he "lost the independence that honest journalism requires." Pelley concluded this public rebuke of the network's owner by stating that Owens proved to be the "right person" leading the show "all along."[106][107][108]
On May 19, 2025, CBS News Chief ExecutiveWendy McMahon followed Bill Owens' in resigning. McMahon explained in a memo to staff, “The past few months have been challenging. It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”[109]
On July 14, 2025, CBS Late Show hostStephen Colbert called the settlement a "big fatbribe" and three days later announced CBS will cancel his show and the Late Show itself in May 2026.[110]
The main60 Minutes show has created a number of spin-offs over the years.
30 Minutes was a news magazine aimed at children that was patterned after60 Minutes, airing as the final program in CBS's Saturday morning lineup from 1978 to 1982. It was hosted byChristopher Glenn (who also served as the voice-over for the interstitial programIn the News and was an anchor on the CBS Radio Network), along with Betsy Aaron (1978–1980) and Betty Ann Bowser (1980–1982).
60 Minutes More was a spin-off that ran for one season from March 31, 1997 on the channelCBS Eye on People.[111] The episodes featured popular stories from the past that were expanded with updates on the original story.[112]
In 1999, a second edition of60 Minutes was started in the United States, titled60 Minutes II. This edition was later renamed60 Minutes for the fall of 2004 in an effort to sell it as a high-quality program, since some had sarcastically referred to it as60 Minutes, Jr. CBS News presidentAndrew Heyward said, "theRoman numeral II created some confusion on the part of the viewers and suggested a watered-down version".[113] However, a widely known controversy that came to be known as "Rathergate", regarding a report that aired on September 8, 2004, caused another name change. The program was retitled60 Minutes Wednesday both to differentiate itself and to avoid tarnishing the Sunday edition, as the editions were editorially independent from one another. It reverted to its original Roman numeral title on July 8, 2005, when the program moved to Fridays in an 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot to finish its run. The show aired its final broadcast on September 2, 2005.
In 2011,CNBC began airing a60 Minutes spin-off of its own, called60 Minutes on CNBC. Hosted by Lesley Stahl and Steve Kroft, it aired updated business-related reports seen on the original broadcasts and offers footage that was not included when the segments first aired. It ended in 2015.
In 2013, CBS's sisterpremium television networkShowtime premiered60 Minutes Sports, a monthly spin-off focused on sports-related stories and classic interviews from the show's archives. Personalities fromCBS Sports also contributed to the program; correspondents includedSharyn Alfonsi andArmen Keteyian. The spin-off was considered a competitor toHBO'sReal Sports. It was cancelled in January 2017.[114][115][116]
In June 2020, the show launched60 in 6 onQuibi, featuring original weekly 6-minute programs. Correspondents wereEnrique Acevedo,Seth Doane,Wesley Lowery, andLaurie Segall.[117][118] It was originally set to launch in April 2020.[119] On the June 21, 2020, broadcast of60 in 6, Doane covered the show's exposure toCOVID-19 in a piece titled "CBS News Battles COVID-19".[120] The piece revealed that CBS News had flown in staffers, including fromSeattle andRome, in early March 2020 to begin filming promotional material for60 in 6. This brought COVID-19-positive people in close contact with CBS employees; as a result,CBS Broadcast Center and several other buildings in Manhattan were temporarily closed.[121]Quibi went bankrupt in December 2020 and the program concluded with it.
In March 2021,Paramount+ premiered60 Minutes+, a weekly spin-off aimed at a younger audience. The correspondents from60 in 6 returned for this spin-off, as well as producer Jonathan Blakely.[122] In January 2022, the show was cancelled after 30 episodes.[123]
For the60 Minutes 25th anniversary program in 1993,Charles Kuralt revisited notable stories and celebrity appearances and also interviewed Don Hewitt and correspondents, both the active and some former ones.
The Australian version of60 Minutes premiered on February 11, 1979. It still airs each Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. on theNine Network and affiliates. Although Nine Network has the rights to the format, as of 2007[update], it does not have rights to stories from the American program, which is owned by competitor10 News Australia afterNetwork Ten's acquisition by CBS in 2017. Nevertheless, stories from the flagship60 Minutes program in the U.S. often air on the Australian program by subleasing them from Ten. In 1981,60 Minutes won aLogie Award for their investigation of lethal abuses at the Chelmsford psychiatric hospital inSydney.[124][125]
In the mid-1980s, an edited version (approx. 30 minutes in length) of the American broadcast edition of60 Minutes, entitled "60 Minutes: CBS im Dritten" ("60 Minutes: CBS on Channel 3") was shown for a time onWestdeutsches Fernsehen[citation needed] (regional channels were also called "Channel 3" to distinguish it from ARD and ZDF, the two national channels at the time). This version retained the English-language track of the original but also featured German dubbing.
The New Zealand version of60 Minutes has aired on national television since 1989, when it was originally launched onTV3. In 1992, the rights were acquired byTVNZ, who began broadcasting it in 1993. The network aired the program for nine years before dropping it in 2002 for its own program, entitledSunday, which is currently the highest-rated current affairs show broadcast on New Zealand television, followed by20/20.60 Minutes was broadcast by rival network TV3, before switching to the Sky Television owned Prime channel in 2013, when the contract changed hands.
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In 1992, theGNT channel brought its original version with dubbed subtitles from that country. And later, in 2004,Rede Bandeirantes, planned a licensed localized version, but the plan was cancelled. And even so that year, it returned as a frame, i.e. a rubric in the programDomingo Espetacular onRede Record, a competitor ofRede Globo's programFantástico.
SIC Notícias acquired the broadcasting rights to the program in 2001. The original episodes were shown inPortugal with introductory and final comments by journalistMário Crespo, who conducted the program until 2014. It is presently hosted by anchors of the aforementioned network on a rotational basis, who eventually adopted the previous model.
The news program ofNational Broadcasting of Chile (TVN), the public television network in that country, was named60 Minutos ("60 Minutes") from 1975 to 1988, but the program had no association with the American version and no investigative reporting.[citation needed]
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