60 Minutes II
Encyclopedia
60 Minutes II was a weekly primetime news magazine television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 that was intended to replicate the "signature style, journalistic quality and integrity" of the original 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

series.

It aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 on Wednesdays, then later moved to Fridays at 8 p.m. The original 60 Minutes continued airing on Sunday nights throughout the run of 60 Minutes II. The first edition of 60 Minutes II ran on January 13, 1999. Its final airing was September 2, 2005.

Correspondents

The broadcast included original reporting from its team of correspondents and from other CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...

 journalists. The program also featured updated reports on classic 60 Minutes stories.

Credited cast on 60 Minutes II included the following CBS correspondents: Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...

, Bob Simon
Bob Simon
Bob Simon is a CBS News television correspondent.From 1964–67, Simon served as an American Foreign Service officer and was a Fulbright Scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar. From 1969–71, he served a tour in the CBS News London bureau. From 1971–77, he was based in the London and Saigon...

, Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...

, Vicki Mabrey
Vicki Mabrey
Vicki Mabrey is currently an ABC News Nightline correspondent. From 1999 to 2005, Mabrey was a CBS News 60 Minutes II correspondent....

, Scott Pelley
Scott Pelley
Scott Cameron Pelley is an American television journalist who is currently anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News and a correspondent for the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes...

 and Lara Logan
Lara Logan
Lara Logan is a South African television and radio journalist, and war correspondent. She is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, and a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes.-Personal life:...

. The following correspondents also worked on segments for the program: Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...

, Ed Gordon, Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...

, Carol Marin
Carol Marin
Carol Marin is a television and print journalist based in Chicago, Illinois.She began her career in 1972 at WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee working as a reporter, anchor, and assistant news director....

 and Jimmy Tingle
Jimmy Tingle
Jimmy Tingle is an American comic and occasional actor.-Life and career:Tingle was the American correspondent for Sir David Frost’s show for PBS and the BBC, The Strategic Humor Initiative. He completed two seasons with 60 Minutes II on CBS as the humorist / commentator in the Andy Rooney spot...

.

Grodin, Jimmy Tingle and Bill Geist contributed semi-humorous commentaries, paralleling the sister program's Andy Rooney.

Killian documents

60 Minutes II ran into controversy in September 2004 when the program staff received a set of documents which alleged that, while in the service of the Texas Air National Guard
Texas Air National Guard
The Texas Air National Guard is the air force militia of the U.S. state of Texas and a component of the Texas Military Forces...

, United States President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 was declared unfit for duty and suspended from service. On September 8, 2004, in the middle of the 2004 Presidential election, Dan Rather went on the air on 60 Minutes II with the documents. The authenticity of these documents was quickly called into question by experts and critics. This became known as the Killian documents controversy (or "Rathergate").

For about two weeks, Rather and his team stood by the story, but CBS later announced it could not vouch for the authenticity of the memos. The network stated that using the memos was a "mistake" and Rather apologized for the incident. Their source, former Texas Army National Guard officer Bill Burkett
Bill Burkett
Bill Burkett was the CBS source in the Killian documents affair of 2004. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Texas Army National Guard....

, had misled a CBS producer about the source of the documents. The senior producer on the story, Mary Mapes
Mary Mapes
Mary Mapes is an American journalist and former television news producer. She was a Peabody Award-winning producer for the American television show 60 Minutes , from which she was fired for her part in the Killian documents scandal....

, was fired, and three other producers involved in the story were asked to resign. It is often implied that Rather's subsequent retirement was tied to this incident.

Name changes

60 Minutes II was renamed 60 Minutes by CBS for the fall of 2004 to signify its quality. CBS News president Andrew Heyward
Andrew Heyward
Andrew Heyward is a former President of CBS News, serving from January 1996 until early November 2005. Currently, he is a Senior Advisor to Marketspace LLC, Monitor Group's digital media practice, where he works with clients to create and strengthen original online content, make more effective use...

 stated at the time, "The Roman numeral II created some confusion on the part of the viewers and suggested a watered-down version."

After the Killian documents controversy, the show was renamed 60 Minutes Wednesday to differentiate it from the original 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

Sunday edition. The show reverted to its original title on July 8, 2005, when the show moved to the 8 p.m. Friday timeslot, where it completed its run.

Awards

60 Minutes II earned a number of awards, including several Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

s and three Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...

s.
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