5.2 /10 4 Votes
Genre Newsmagazine Country of origin Australia No. of seasons 41 First episode date 11 February 1979 Number of seasons 41 | 6.7/10 IMDb Original language(s) English Executive producer(s) Kirsty Thomson (2016) Language English Program creator Don Hewitt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Presented by Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Allison Langdon, Peter Stefanovic, Liam Bartlett, Ross Coulthart Awards Logie Award for Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report Similar Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent, 60 Minutes II, 60 Minutes Sports, Home and Away Profiles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
60 Minutes is an Australian version of the U.S. television newsmagazine program 60 Minutes airing on Sunday nights on the Nine Network. A New Zealand version uses segments of the show.
Contents
- Awards
- Executive producers
- Present correspondents
- Contributing reporters
- Past correspondents
- Original correspondents
- Commentators
- Controversies
- References
Gerald Stone, the founding executive producer, was given the job by Kerry Packer and was told: "I don't give a f... what it takes. Just do it and get it right." After the first episode was broadcast on 11 February 1979, Packer was less than impressed, telling Stone: "You've blown it, son. You better fix it fast." Over the years, Stone's award-winning 60 Minutes revolutionised Australian current affairs reporting and enhanced the careers of Ray Martin, Ian Leslie, George Negus, and later Jana Wendt.
Awards
60 Minutes has won numerous awards for broadcasting, including five Silver Logies, one Special Achievement Logie, and received nominations for a further six Logie awards.
Executive producers
Present correspondents
Contributing reporters
Past correspondents
Original correspondents
Commentators
Past and present commentators include:
Controversies
In March 2016, a news crew for Australia's 60 Minutes working with Jan Sjunnesson came under attack, including having stones thrown on them and a car running over the foot of a cameraman who was trying to prevent it from leaving in the immigrant-dominated district of Rinkeby of Stockholm. 60 Minutes published the video, on which reporter Liz Hayes states "there are now 55 declared no-go zones in Sweden."
In April 2016, Tara Brown and eight other people (including three other staff members of the Nine Network, David Ballment, Stephen Rice, and Ben Williamson) were arrested on allegations of child abduction in Beirut. According to Lebanese authorities, 60 minutes allegedly paid $115,000 directly to the Child Abduction Recovery International Agency, despite claims that the exchange was made by the mother of the children. The abduction agency used has also been widely discredited, with fake recovery stories being posted on Facebook and their operators having been arrested all over the world. The recovery involved the team waiting in a parked car on the street and then snatching the children from their Grandmother and nanny before driving away. [Media WatchLebanese judicial sources told The Guardian that the group were to be charged with "armed abduction, purveying threats and physical harm" - crimes which carry sentences of twenty years imprisonment with hard labour. The group were released from custody only after the Nine Network paid a substantial money settlement to the father of the children the subject of the abduction attempt. This operation by 60 minutes sparked wide debate about the ethics of the journalism being conducted and was a great humiliation to the program.