60 Minutes

==Broadcast history==

===Early years===
[[Image:60 Minutes.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Since the show's inception in 1968, the opening of ''60 Minutes'' features a stopwatch.<ref>{{cite news|title=Timely Donation From '60 Minutes'|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/09/22/national/main18102.shtml|work=CBS News|date=September 22, 1998|access-date=April 20, 2020|archive-date=May 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513091334/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/09/22/national/main18102.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Aristo (Heuer) design first appeared in 1978. On October 29, 2006, the background changed to red, the title text color changed to white, and the stopwatch was shifted to the upright position. This version was used from 1992 to 2006 (the Square 721 type was changed in 1998).]]
{{external media| float = right| width = 230px| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?112277-1/30th-anniversary-60-minutes Panel discussion on the 30th anniversary of ''60 Minutes'' at the Newseum, featuring Ed Bradley,  Esther Hartigainer, Don Hewitt, Josh Howard, Steve Kroft, Mary Lieberthal, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Philip Scheffler, Lesley Stahl, and Mike Wallace]}}

The program employed a magazine format similar to that of the Canadian program ''[[W5 (TV series)|W5]]'', which had premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most important [[investigative journalism]] procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and "[[gotcha journalism]]" visits to the home or office of an investigative subject.<ref name="'70s">{{cite book|title=How We Got Here: The '70s|page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/36 36]|last=Frum|first=David|author-link=David Frum|year=2000|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York City, New York|isbn=0-465-04195-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/36}}</ref> Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.<ref name="'70s"/>

Initially, ''60 Minutes'' aired as a bi-weekly show hosted by [[Mike Wallace]] and [[Harry Reasoner]] debuting on September 24, 1968, and alternating weeks with other [[CBS News]] productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00&nbsp;p.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]]. The first edition, described by Reasoner in the opening as a "kind of a magazine for television," featured the following segments:
# A look inside the headquarters suites of presidential candidates [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Hubert Humphrey]] during their respective parties' national conventions that summer;
# Commentary by European writers [[Malcolm Muggeridge]], [[Peter von Zahn]], and [[Luigi Barzini Jr.]] on the American electoral system;
# A commentary by political humor columnist [[Art Buchwald]];
# An interview with then-[[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Ramsey Clark]] about police brutality;
# "A Digression," a brief, scripted piece in which two silhouetted men (one of them [[Andy Rooney]]) discuss the presidential campaign;
# An abbreviated version of an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]-winning short film by [[Saul Bass]], ''[[Why Man Creates]];'' and
# A meditation by Wallace and Reasoner on the relation between perception and reality. Wallace said that the show aimed to "reflect reality".

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|lc=y}}) did not appear until the following year. The logo was in [[Helvetica]] type with the word "Minutes" spelled in all lower-case letters; the logo most associated with the show (rendered in Square 721 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 (pet food)|Alpo]] dog food was the sole sponsor of the first program.<ref name="60MinutesHD">{{cite web|title=60 Minutes Goes HD With Nominees|url=http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/60-minutes-goes-hd-with-nominees/22031|last=K.|first=Steve|work=[[Adweek|TVNewser]]|publisher=[[Mediabistro.com]]|date=September 17, 2008|access-date=March 29, 2012}}</ref>

Don Hewitt, who had been a producer of the ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' with [[Walter Cronkite]], sought out Wallace as a stylistic contrast to Reasoner.<ref name="Madsen">Madsen, p. 14</ref> 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.<ref name="Madsen"/> 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 during [[prime time]] lost money; networks mainly scheduled [[public affairs (broadcasting)|public 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 to ''60 Minutes'' came fairly early in the program's history. When Reasoner left CBS to co-anchor [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s [[ABC World News Tonight|evening newscast]] (he would return to CBS and ''60 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 in [[Saigon]] and [[London]], began to do "hard" investigative reports, and during the 1970–71 season alone, ''60 Minutes'' reported on [[cluster bomb]]s, the [[South Vietnamese Army]], [[draft dodger]]s, [[Nigeria]], the Middle East, and [[Northern Ireland]].<ref name="Madsen 15">Madsen, p. 15</ref>

===Effects from the Prime Time Access Rule and Later Years===
[[File:General Schwartz on 60 Minutes.jpg|thumb|Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. [[Norton A. Schwartz]] in an interview with [[Lara Logan]], April 15, 2009]]
By 1971, the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) introduced the [[Prime 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 for ''60 Minutes'' in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00&nbsp;p.m. to 7:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern (5:00&nbsp;p.m. to 6:00&nbsp;p.m. [[Central Time Zone|Central Time]]) on Sundays in January 1972.<ref name="Madsen 15"/>

This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodate [[NFL on CBS|CBS]]' telecasts of late afternoon [[National Football League]] (NFL) football 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 Game|Heidi Bowl]]" incident on [[NFL on NBC|NBC]] in November 1968. Despite the irregular scheduling, the program's hard-hitting reports attracted a steadily growing audience, particularly during the waning days of the [[Vietnam War]] and the gripping events of the [[Watergate scandal]]; at that time, few if any other major network news shows did in-depth investigative reporting to the degree carried out by ''60 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 for ''60 Minutes''. When the family-oriented drama ''[[Three for the Road (TV series)|Three for the Road]]'' ended after a 12-week run in the fall, the news magazine took its place at 7:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time (6:00&nbsp;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 or [[breakfast television|morning news-talk]] shows) broadcasting for the longest length of time at a single time period each week in U.S. television history.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}

This move, and the addition of then-[[The White House|White House]] correspondent [[Dan 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 U.S. By 1979, it had achieved the #1 spot among all television programs in the [[Nielsen 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.<ref>Madsen, p. 17</ref>

The program sometimes does not start until after 7:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern, due largely to [[CBS 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 the [[Masters Tournament]] and the second round and regional final games of the [[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship|NCAA men's basketball tournament]]) leading into ''60 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 the Super 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&nbsp;p.m., CBS changed the scheduled start time of ''60 Minutes'' to 7:30&nbsp;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&nbsp;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) .<ref>{{cite news|title=CBS Responds to NFL Doubleheaders by Pushing Sunday Series Back 30 Minutes|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/good-wife-mentalist-amazing-race-premieres-schedule-nfl-369481|last=O'Connell|first=Michael|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=September 11, 2012}}</ref> In the 2023–2024 season, the show began to have occasional 90 minute episodes.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/for-several-episodes-this-fall-60-minutes-will-become-90-minutes/ | title=For several episodes this fall, '60 Minutes' will become 90 minutes - CBS Texas | website=[[CBS News]] | date=September 16, 2023 }}</ref>

===Radio broadcast and Internet distribution===
''60 Minutes'' is also simulcast on several former [[CBS Radio]] flagship stations such as [[KYW-AM|KYW]] in Philadelphia, [[WBBM (AM)|WBBM]] in [[Chicago]], [[WWJ (AM)|WWJ]] in [[Detroit]], [[KCBS (AM)|KCBS]] in [[San Francisco]] (all owned by [[Audacy, Inc.]]) and [[WBZ (AM)|WBZ]] in [[Boston]] (owned by [[iHeartMedia]]). Anchorage-based station [[KFQD]] airs ''60 Minutes'' as part of its affiliation with local CBS station [[KAUU]]. 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&nbsp;p.m./6:00&nbsp;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 via [[podcast]] and the [[iTunes Store]], starting with the broadcast on September 23, 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title=CBS Making 60 Minutes Available as Free Podcast|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/cbs-making-60-minutes-available-free-podcast/30717|last=Weprin|first=Alex|work=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|date=September 20, 2007|access-date=March 29, 2012}}</ref> Video from ''60 Minutes'' (including full episodes) is also made available for streaming several hours after the program's initial broadcast on CBSNews.com and [[Paramount+]].