60 Minutes is a CBS network news magazine and television program created by Don Hewitt that has aired since September 24, 1968, currently lasting for 51 seasons.
The series currently holds the record for 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 is officially scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays where a CBS affiliate has a late NFL game).
Current correspondents and commentators[]
Current Hosts
- Steve Kroft (host, 1989–present, co-editor)
- Lesley Stahl (host, 1991–present, co-editor)
- Scott Pelley (host, 2003–present)
- Bill Whitaker (host, 2014–present)
Current part-time correspondents
- Anderson Cooper (2006–present) (also at CNN)
Norah O'Donnell (2015–present)
- Sharyn Alfonsi (2015–present)
- Jon Wertheim (2017–present)
Former correspondents and hosts[]
Former hosts
- Harry Reasoner (host, 1968–70 and 1978–91)
- Mike Wallace (host, 1968–2006; correspondent emeritus 2006–08)
- Morley Safer (part-time correspondent, 1968–70; host, 1970–2016)
- Dan Rather (part-time correspondent, 1968–75; host, 1975–81 and 2005–06) (now at AXS TV)
- Ed Bradley (part-time correspondent, 1976–81; host, 1981–2006)[31]
- Diane Sawyer (part-time correspondent, 1981–84; host, 1984–89) (now at ABC News)
- Meredith Vieira (part-time correspondent, 1982–85 and 1991–93; host, 1990–91)
- Bob Simon † (1996–2015)
- Christiane Amanpour (part-time correspondent, 1996–2000; host, 2000–05)
- Lara Logan (part-time correspondent, 2005–12; host, 2012–2018)
Former part-time correspondents
- Walter Cronkite (1968–81)
- Charles Kuralt (1968–79)
- Roger Mudd (1968–80) (retired)
- Bill Plante (1968–95) (retired)
- Eric Sevareid (1968–69)
- John Hart (1969–75)
- Bob Schieffer (1973–96)
- Morton Dean (1975–79) (retired)
- Marlene Sanders † (1978–87)
- Charles Osgood (1981–94) (retired)
- Forrest Sawyer (1985–87)
- Connie Chung (1990–93) (retired)
- Paula Zahn (1990–99)
- John Roberts (1992–2005) (now at Fox News Channel)
- Russ Mitchell (1995–98) (now at WKYC in Cleveland)
- Carol Marin (1997–2002)
- Bryant Gumbel (1998–2002)
- Katie Couric (2006–11)
- Charlie Rose (2008–17)
- Byron Pitts (2009–13) (now at ABC News)
- Alison Stewart (2012)
- Sanjay Gupta (2011–14)
- Oprah Winfrey (2017–2018)(resigned after agreeing to campaign for a political candidate, in violation of ethics policy)
Commentators[]
- James J. Kilpatrick (conservative debater, 1971–79)
- Nicholas von Hoffman (liberal debater, 1971–74)
- Shana Alexander (liberal debater, 1975–79)
- Andy Rooney (commentator, 1978–2011)
- Stanley Crouch (commentator, 1996)
- Molly Ivins (liberal commentator, 1996)
- P. J. O'Rourke (conservative commentator, 1996)
- Bill Clinton (liberal debater, 2003)
- Bob Dole (conservative debater, 2003)
Ratings[]
Based on ratings, "60 Minutes" is the most successful program in U.S. television history since it was moved into its present timeslot in 1975.
For five of its seasons, it has been that year's top program, a feat matched by the sitcoms "All in the Family" and NBC's "The Cosby Show" and surpassed only by the FOX network reality competition series, "American Idol" which had been the #1 show for eight consecutive seasons from the 2003–04 television season up to the 2010–11 season.
The series 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 1976–77 season, except the 2005–06 season when it finished at #21.
"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 1979–80, it was the number one show.
During the 21st century, it remains among the top 20 programs in the Nielsen ratings and the highest-rated news magazine.
The November 16, 2008 edition featuring an interview with President-elect Barack Obama, earned a total viewership of 25.1 million viewers.
The October 6, 2013 edition (which was delayed by 44 minutes that evening due to a Denver 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 watched "60 Minutes" broadcast since December 16, 2012.
The December 1, 2013 edition (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).
The March 25, 2018 edition featuring Stormy Daniels giving details on her alleged affair with President Donald Trump drew 22.1 million viewers, the most since the aforementioned Obama interview in 2008.
The broadcast was delayed due to the NCAA men's basketball regional final on CBS between Kansas and Duke going to overtime.
Accolades[]
Emmy Awards[]
As of June 26, 2017, "60 Minutes" had won a total of 138 Emmy Awards, a record unsurpassed by any other primetime program on U.S. television.
Peabody Awards[]
The show has won 20 Peabody 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 of friendly fire in the Gulf 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.
Other awards[]
"60 Minutes" received an Investigative Reporter and Editor medal for their segment "The Osprey", documenting a Marine cover-up of deadly flaws in the V-22 Osprey aircraft.
Controversy[]
Although "60 Minutes" has been praised for landmark journalism and received many awards, it has also become embroiled in some controversy.
Unintended acceleration[]
On November 23, 1986, "60 Minutes" aired a segment greenlit by Hewitt, concerning the Audi 5000 automobile, a popular German luxury car.
The story covered a supposed problem of "unintended acceleration" when the brake pedal was pushed, with emotional interviews with six people who sued Audi (unsuccessfully) after they crashed their cars, including one woman whose 6-year-old boy had been killed.
In the 60 Minutes segment footage was shown of an Audi 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".
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 by Audi and independent journalists showed that even with the throttle wide open, the car would simply stall if the brakes were actually being used.
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 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport 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.
Years later, Dateline NBC (a rival to "60 Minutes") was found guilty of similar tactics regarding the fuel tank integrity of General Motors pickup trucks.
Alar[]
In February 1989, 60 Minutes aired a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council claiming that the use of daminozide (or Alar) on apples presented an unacceptably high health risk to consumers.
Apple sales dropped and CBS was sued unsuccessfully by apple growers. Alar was eventually subsequently banned for use on food crops in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Werner Erhard[]
On March 3, 1991, 60 Minutes broadcast "Werner Erhard," which dealt with controversies involving Erhard's personal and business life.
One year after the 60 Minutes piece aired, Erhard filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that the broadcast contained several "false, misleading and defamatory" statements about him.
A month after filing the lawsuit, Erhard filed for dismissal. Erhard later told Larry 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 with malice.
After numerous independent journalists exposed untruths and factual inaccuracies in the story, 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 or copyright reasons."
Brown & Williamson[]
In 1995, former Brown & Williamson Vice President for Research and Development Jeffrey Wigand provided information to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman that B&W had systematically hidden the health risks of their cigarettes. Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents (such as fiberglass and ammonia) with the intent of enhancing the effect of nicotine.
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 for tortious interference for encouraging Wigand to violate his non-disclosure agreement.
A number of people at CBS would benefit from a sale of CBS to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, including the head of CBS lawyers and CBS News.
Also, because of the interview, the son of CBS President Laurence Tisch (who also controlled Lorillard Tobacco) was among the people from the big tobacco companies at risk of being caught having committed perjury.
Due to Hewitt's hesitation, The Wall Street Journal instead broke Wigand's story. The "60 Minutes" piece was eventually aired with substantially altered content and minus some of the most damning evidence against B&W.
The exposé of the incident was published in an article in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner, entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
The New York Times wrote that "the traditions of Edward R. Murrow and "60 Minutes" itself were diluted in the process" though the newspaper revised the quote slightly, suggesting that "60 Minutes" and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow".
The incident was turned into a seven-times Oscar-nominated feature film called "The Insider" directed by Michael Mann and starring Russell Crowe (as Wigand), Al Pacino (as Bergman) and Christopher Plummer (as Wallace). Wallace denounced the portrayal of him as inaccurate to his stance on the issue
U.S. Customs Service[]
60 Minutes alleged in 1997 that agents of the U.S. Customs Service ignored drug trafficking across the Mexico–United States border at San Diego.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 to "60 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. Hewitt was forced to issue an on-air retraction.
Kennewick Man[]
A legal battle between archaeologists and the Umatilla tribe over the remains of a skeleton, nicknamed Kennewick Man, was reported by "60 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 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The report focused heavily on the racial politics of the controversy and also added inflammatory arguments, such as questioning the legitimacy of Native American sovereignty, much of the racial focus of the segment was later reported to have been either unfounded and/or misinterpreted.
Timothy McVeigh[]
On March 12, 2000, the show aired an interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. At the time, McVeigh had already been convicted and sentenced to death for the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and subsequent deaths of 168 people.
On the program, McVeigh was given the opportunity to vent against the government. Following the program, a federal policy called the Special Confinement Unit Media Policy was enacted prohibiting face-to-face interviews with death row inmates.
A federal inmate challenged the policy in Hammer v. Ashcroft, under which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the prison policy.
In March 2010, the United 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 why.
Viacom/CBS cross-promotion[]
In recent years, "60 Minutes" has been accused of promoting books, films, and interviews with celebrities who are published or promoted by sister businesses of media conglomerate Viacom (which owned CBS from 2000 to 2005, and is now owned by National Amusements, which is also the parent of CBS) and publisher Simon & Schuster (which remains a part of CBS Corporation after the 2005 CBS/Viacom split), without disclosing the journalistic conflict-of-interest to viewers.[70]
The Killian documents controversy[]
The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as "Memogate" or "Rathergate") involved six documents critical of President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73.
Four of these documents were presented as authentic in a "60 Minutes" Wednesday broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 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. The whole incident was turned into a feature-length film called "Truth".
"The Internet Is Infected" episode and the false hacker photo[]
A segment aired on the March 29, 2009, edition of 60 Minutes, "The Internet Is Infected", featured an interview with Don Jackson, a data protection professional for SecureWorks.
Jackson himself declares in the program that: "A part of my job is to know the enemy". However, during the interview, he showed a photo of Finnish upper-level comprehensive school pupils and misidentified them as Russian hackers.
In the photo, one of the children is wearing a jacket with the Coat of Arms of Finland on it. Another one is wearing a cap which clearly has the logo of Karjala, a Finnish brand of beer, on it. The principal of the school in Taivalkoski confirmed that the photo was taken at the school about five years before the program was broadcast.
The photo's exact origins are unknown, but it is widely known in Finland, having been originally posted to a 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.
"60 Minutes" later issued a correction and on-air apology.
Don Jackson personally responded with:
"I want want to be clear that while the photo used was supplied by my employer, we warned the 60 Minutes production crew that it was based on a photo from a Russian-language satire/joke site, but 60 Minutes requested we address it on camera, and the discussion about the claimed 'hacker handles' in it was edited in post-production to imply that the photo was genuine. The hacker group being discussed gave us a link to that photo in response to a request to share information about themselves. It was obviously disingenuous. I never 'misidentified them as Russian hackers'. 60 Minutes producers did that, which is why they issued a clarification and apology, not me or my employer. The origin of the picture is well known. 60 Minutes chose to ignore that. Ask yourself why."
Wikipedia editors have since removed the misleading claim that Jackson "misidentified [the photo subjects] as Russian hackers".
Benghazi report[]
Subsequent to the 2012 Benghazi attack, 60 Minutes aired a report by correspondent Lara 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.
Davies also claimed to have visited a Benghazi hospital earlier that night where he saw Ambassador Christopher Stevens' body.
In the days following the report, Davies' personal actions were challenged. The FBI, which had interviewed Davies several times and considered him a credible source, said the account Davies had given them was different than what he told "60 Minute."
Davies stood by his story, but the inconsistency ultimately prompted the show to conclude it was a mistake to include Davies in their report and a correction was issued.
Following the correction, a journalistic review was conducted by Al Ortiz, CBS News' executive director of standards and practices. He determined that red flags about Davies' account were missed.
Davies had said to 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 US authorities and "60 Minutes" was unable to prove that the story Davies had told them was true.
Davies' book, "The Embassy House" was published two days after the 60 Minutes report, by Threshold Editions, part of the Simon and Schuster unit of CBS. It was pulled from shelves once 60 Minutes issued its correction.
On November 26, 2013, Lara Logan was forced to take a leave of absence due to the errors in the Benghazi report.
NSA report[]
On December 15, 2013, "60 Minutes" aired a report on the National Security Agency (NSA) that was widely criticized as false and a "puff piece."
The story was reported by John Miller, who once worked in the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Tesla Automaker report[]
On March 30, 2014, "60 Minutes" presented a story on the Tesla Model S luxury electric automobile in a segment, with Scott Pelley conducting an interview with CEO Elon Musk concerning the car brand as well as his SpaceX company.
Within a day, the automotive blog site Jalopnik 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 is much quieter.
CBS released a statement explaining that the sound was the result of an audio editing error, and subsequently removed the noise from the online version of the piece.
However, several news outlets (as well as Jalopnik itself) have expressed doubt over the authenticity of this explanation, noting the similar scandal involving Tesla Motors and The New York Times in 2013.
Sexual harassment investigation[]
After the resignation of CBS news head Les Moonves, an investigation into sexual harassment at CBS (including "60 Minutes") uncovered evidence of long-running sexual harassment issues stemming from behavior of "60 Minutes" producers Jeff Fager and Don Hewitt.