The famous Clinton interview of 1992.Photo: CBS via Getty
Every day, the team behind CBS News'60 Minutesfaces a make-or-break question: “How do we tell this story differently?”
“People have an expectation that on Sunday,60 Minutesis going to do something distinctive,” says executive producer Bill Owens, only the third person to hold the title in the show’s history. “They’re going to tell you something you hadn’t heard before. And that’s the bar we look to clear with each story.”
That bar sits at an Olympic height. Segments will go through anywhere from three to 12 rounds of revisions before they’re approved for air, as producers, correspondents and researchers comb through every word, every inflection, to ensure that it’s fair, accurate and deserving of the60 Minuteswatermark.
Bill Owens.Mary Kouw/CBS
Walking into the60 Minutesworkspace, it’s hard to forget the role correspondents have played in marking history for five-plus decades.
Old and simple, calm yet thrilling, the office matches the tone of the broadcast. While there are contemporary touches and new technologies, little has changed over time. And as the show lengthens its unprecedented run, viewers can continue to expect a show that looks and feels the same they’ve always known it.
“I will not change,” Owens says. “I have no interest in changing the content, nor does anybody who works here.”
The ‘60 Minutes’ news team in 1986.Brownie Harris/Corbis via Getty
The Secret to60 Minutes' Timelessness
When thetick tick tickwelcomes a new Sunday night episode, anyone listening knows what’s coming: They will hear an impactful interview, see a fascinating feature and get a taste of culture before the hour ends.
“They have no idea what the story’s going to be,” Stahl says, “but they absolutely know that the quality’s going to be the same.”
Owens' defiant commitment to putting gut feelings over viewer-driven data would be detrimental to other newscasts, which have struggled to maintain viewership in an ever-changing media landscape. But60 Minutesisn’t like other newscasts; its audience remains enormous.
President Biden on ‘60 Minutes’.Eric Kerchner/60 Minutes
After years of murmurs that broadcast news is dying,60 Minutescontinues to pull in 9 million viewers a week on average. When there’s a particularly important interview, the needle moves closer to 13 million.
“When I started at CBS News in 1988, the average age of a60 Minutesviewer was about my age now,” the 55-year-old EP says. “The mean age of a60 Minutesviewer today is almost exactly the same.” His theory is that people “grow into” the show, as circumstances in their life lead them to crave calm storytelling — and be at home more often on Sunday evenings.
The cast of ‘60 Minutes’ as seen in the Sept. 20 issue of ‘Watch Magazine’.CBS Watch Magazine
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As for why viewers turn to60instead of another evening news program, multiple members of the team note that their core base is “sophisticated”; they don’t want the sensationalism, they don’t want the bells and whistles, they don’t want flashy graphics, and they certainly don’t want modern trends to change the show’s nostalgic feeling.
Plus, as correspondent Bill Whitaker says, “the visuals are second to none.” With the help of top-talent camera crews based all over the world, each segment is able to bring audiences along for the journey, no matter the destination.
As a new season of the show quickly approaches, Whitaker hopes that Americans can sit back and enjoy another year of engaging content that contextualizes the world around them, advising: “Just take a minute and listen to this. Just take a minute and consider this.”
60 Minutesseason 55 premieres Sunday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on CBS.
source: people.com
