60 Minutes

==Format==
''60 Minutes'' normally has three long-form news stories without superimposed graphics. There is a [[Television advertisement|commercial 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 competitor ''[[20/20 (American TV program)|20/20]]'', as well as traditional local and national news programs, the ''60 Minutes'' journalists never share the screen with (or speak to) other ''60 Minutes'' journalists on camera at ''any'' time. This creates a strong psychological sense of intimacy between the journalist and the television viewer.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

===Reporting tone===
''60 Minutes'' blends the journalism of the seminal 1950s CBS series ''[[See It Now]]'' with [[Edward 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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=4620|title=What Would Murrow Do?|last=Potter|first=Deborah|date=October 2008|work=American Journalism Review|publisher=Phillip Merrill College of Journalism|access-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref>

==="Point/Counterpoint" segment===
For most of the 1970s, the program included ''Point/Counterpoint'', in which a [[liberalism|liberal]] and a [[conservatism|conservative]] commentator debated an issue. This segment originally featured [[James J. Kilpatrick]] representing the conservative side and [[Nicholas von Hoffman]]<ref name="sentinelsource.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.sentinelsource.com/opinion/my-gifted-counterpoint-on-minutes-wrote-like-an-angel-by/article_cf66570c-f7aa-5f2a-9b2f-b636f24420cd.html|title=My gifted counterpoint on '60 Minutes' wrote like an angel|last=Kilpatrick|first=James J.|date=July 5, 2005|work=[[The Keene Sentinel]]}}</ref> for the liberal, with [[Shana Alexander]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/shana-alexander-famed-for-point-counterpoint-dies/|title=Shana Alexander, famed for "Point/Counterpoint," dies|last=McLellan|first=Dennis|date=June 26, 2005|work=[[The Seattle Times]]}}</ref> taking over for von Hoffman after he departed in 1974.<ref name="sentinelsource.com"/> 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.<ref name="sentinelsource.com"/>

''Point/Counterpoint'' was lampooned by the NBC comedy series ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', which featured [[Jane Curtin]] and [[Dan Aykroyd]] as debaters, with Aykroyd announcing the topic, Curtin making an opening statement, then Aykroyd typically retorting with, "Jane, you ignorant slut" and Curtin responding "Dan, you pompous ass";<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/point-counterpoint-lee-marvin-and-michelle-triola/2846665|title=Point Counterpoint: Lee Marvin and Michelle Triola|date=March 17, 1979|website=nbc.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/pictures/50-greatest-saturday-night-live-sketches-of-all-time-20140203/point-counterpoint-0207143|title=50 Greatest 'SNL' Sketches of All Time|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=February 3, 2014|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090852/https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/pictures/50-greatest-saturday-night-live-sketches-of-all-time-20140203/point-counterpoint-0207143|url-status=dead}}</ref> in the film ''[[Airplane!]]'' (1980), in which the ''faux'' Kilpatrick argues in favor of the plane crashing stating "they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into"; and in an earlier [[sketch comedy]] film, ''[[The Kentucky Fried Movie]]'', where the segment was called "Count/Pointercount".

A similar concept was revived briefly in March 2003 featuring [[Bob Dole]] and [[Bill Clinton]], former opponents in the [[1996 United States presidential election|1996 presidential election]]. The pair agreed to do ten segments, called "Clinton/Dole" and "Dole/Clinton" in alternating weeks, but did not continue into the 2003–2004 fall season. Reports indicated that the segments were considered too gentlemanly, in the style of the earlier "Point/Counterpoint", and lacked the feistiness of ''[[Crossfire (U.S. TV program)|Crossfire]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title='60 Minutes' may veto Clinton-Dole face-offs|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2003-05-06-media-mix_x.htm|last=Johnson|first=Peter|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=May 6, 2003}}</ref>

===Andy Rooney segment===
From 1978 to 2011, the program usually ended with a (usually light-hearted and humorous) commentary by [[Andy 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 of [[coffee]] in coffee cans.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Pound of Coffee?|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/07/60minutes/rooney/main543240.shtml|last=Rooney|first=Andy|author-link=Andy Rooney|work=CBS News|date=July 6, 2003|access-date=April 20, 2020|archive-date=May 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513084802/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/07/60minutes/rooney/main543240.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Rooney's pieces, particularly one in which he referred to actor [[Mel 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 much [[alcoholic beverages|alcohol]], too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, [[tobacco|cigarettes]] [are] all known to lead to premature death."<ref>{{cite news|date=November 5, 2011|title=Andy Rooney Dead at 92|work=[[CBS News]]|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andy-rooney-dead-at-92/3/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516192850/https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57319150/andy-rooney-dead-at-92/|archive-date=May 16, 2012}}</ref> He wrote an explanatory letter to a [[gay]] 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Zoglin|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Zoglin|last2=Whitaker|first2=Leslie|date=March 12, 1990|title=Andy Rooney: The Return of a Curmudgeon|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,969591,00.html|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|access-date=October 29, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420185234/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,969591,00.html|archive-date=April 20, 2012}}</ref>

Rooney published several books documenting his contributions to the program, including ''Years Of Minutes'' and ''A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney''. Rooney retired from ''60 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.

===Opening sequence===
The opening sequence features a ''60 Minutes'' "magazine cover" with the show's trademark, an [[TAG Heuer|Aristo]] [[stopwatch]], 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 (currently [[Scott Pelley]]) then says, "Those stories tonight on ''60 Minutes''". When Rooney was a prominent fixture, the final line was "Those stories and Andy Rooney, tonight on ''60 Minutes''". Before that, and whenever Rooney did not appear, the final line was "Those stories and more, tonight on ''60 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|date=June 2012}}

===Web content===
Videos and transcripts of ''60 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Introducing "60 Minutes Overtime"|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20016663-10391709.html|work=CBS News|date=September 26, 2010|access-date=April 20, 2020|archive-date=November 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131120194926/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20016663-10391709.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Previously the show had a partnership with [[Yahoo!]] for distribution of extra content.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9D0DE0DB1130F934A1575AC0A9669D8B63.html|title = MEDIA DECODER; Site for '60 Minutes' to Take Viewers into the Back Stories}}</ref>