’60 Minutes’ keeps on the news and is rewarded by viewers

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NEW YORK (AP) — Considered one of tv’s hottest reveals can be amongst its oldest.

It’s not the primary time that’s been mentioned about “60 Minutes” since its 1968 debut. Within the frenzied information yr of 2020, nevertheless, the success is a tribute to each sturdiness and adaptableness.

CBS’ pioneering newsmagazine is persistently one of many most-watched applications on tv and its viewership is up 9% over final yr, the Nielsen firm mentioned. That’s greater than some other prime-time program on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, and in addition certainly one of solely 4 to indicate a year-to-year improve.

All that, and a well-publicized dust-up with President Donald Trump, too.

After govt producer Invoice Owens turned the present primarily over to COVID-19 protection final spring, “60 Minutes” has returned to its conventional format whereas being targeted on being well timed.

“We’re being inspired, and we do, to search for tales that relate to the week,” mentioned veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl. “Definitely for the previous couple of years, each week has been unpredictable. It’s important to be ready to leap.

“It’s a part of the rationale that we’ve continued to achieve success, and proceed to get a brand new stream of younger individuals to come back in and watch,” she mentioned. “I additionally suppose that folks discover a sure type of consolation in the truth that we do it in the identical approach we’ve at all times accomplished it. It appears the identical, the sensibility is identical, the DNA is identical.”

Anderson Cooper’s report on lingering COVID-19 signs obtained a powerful response this fall, and there have been different pandemic-related tales about vaccine growth and issues producing protecting tools. Reporters nearly at all times return from coronavirus tales with concepts for others, Owens mentioned.

“The factor about this story is that it actually does contact each a part of our lives,” he mentioned. “It’s not that we’re seeking to simply do tales concerning the pandemic. We need to do related tales concerning the pandemic. However I additionally suppose individuals want a break.”

That has inspired profiles of Jerry Seinfeld, Viola Davis, David Attenborough and Ken Burns to be combined in with tales on autism, a rising grizzly bear inhabitants and a placing Scott Pelley piece on church buildings hewn into rock in Ethiopia.

“60 Minutes” this fall has featured interviews with fired authorities cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs, former President Barack Obama and poisoned Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny.

“On this newsiest of years, it’s becoming that ‘60 Minutes’ turned much more conscious of the headlines,” mentioned Andrew Heyward, former CBS Information president and now analysis professor at Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Unique govt producer Don Hewitt usually ran “60 Minutes” as an island unto itself. His substitute, Jeff Fager, pushed the published to be extra conscious of the information and Owens has emphasised it much more over the previous 9 months.

The present’s ticking stopwatch has by no means modified, and Stahl is a residing hyperlink to late reporters Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley and Bob Simon. But it’s noteworthy how “60 Minutes” has maintained momentum whereas turning to a brand new technology of reporters like Pelley, Cooper, Invoice Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, Heyward mentioned.

“The important thing to this system’s success is basically sensible story choice, actually deep analysis and actually good reporters and producers on the market doing the work,” he mentioned.

Whereas Trump’s ongoing effort to remain in workplace was addressed within the Krebs interview, Owens mentioned he’s chosen to not give further oxygen to the story.

Stahl’s off-the-rails interview with the president will doubtless be the season’s most-remembered second. Trump turned disgusted with Stahl’s questioning and reduce issues quick.

“I’ve had individuals say to me, ‘He set you up. He deliberate that,’” Stahl mentioned. “I’m completely optimistic that that’s not the case. It occurred organically within the room.”

Owens mentioned “60 Minutes” has had an honest skilled relationship with Trump, who gave Stahl his first interview as president-elect in 2016. However this time, “there was a special feeling within the room from the second we walked in.”

He mentioned he confronted a press consultant when he noticed Trump’s crew was getting ready to videotape the interview, reminding them of an settlement to not use the fabric. When Trump threatened to launch the unedited tapes, Owens protested and tried to cease it.

The White Home went forward anyway, permitting outsiders a uncommon alternative to see how the present crafted uncooked materials right into a completed, edited piece. Just like the interview itself, that finally proved unremarkable.

“I used to be heartened — not stunned, however heartened — that we had nearly no criticism over our modifying, which individuals thought was honest,” Stahl mentioned. “That was pleasing. However I knew it could be honest. We’re at all times honest.”

Owens mentioned that “we didn’t really feel good that we have been unable to ship a extra fulsome interview. But it surely additionally wasn’t of our personal selecting.”

How about going again, and providing Trump the primary TV interview of his post-presidency?

“I haven’t provided that a lot thought,” Owens mentioned. “I’ve a sense we wouldn’t be his first shot.”

Stahl, too, has moved on. She’s getting ready for an interview with Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Stahl mentioned she’s fully healed from her personal tough bout with COVID-19 final spring. That contrasts together with her husband, who had a comparatively gentle case, however nonetheless feels lingering signs, she mentioned.

Her expertise hasn’t had a lot influence on her work, each bodily and in influencing the kinds of tales she desires to do, she mentioned. She does really feel a connection to tales about well being care staff, as a result of she’s seen how onerous they work.

“One one who took care of me mentioned — once I acquired higher — that I used to be the primary individual she had taken care of who hadn’t died,” she mentioned.

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