60 Minutes Returns for Season 59 With New Look as Bari Weiss Keeps Core Formula
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 14
60 Minutes Returns for Season 59 With New Look as Bari Weiss Keeps Core Formula
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 14
Summary
Season 59 of “60 Minutes” returned Sunday with a refreshed on-air lineup and glossier visuals under CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, but the program largely stuck to its familiar mix of investigations, politics and lighter features.
Norah O’Donnell led with an interview featuring an Air Force colonel rescued after being shot down over Iran, while Lesley Stahl examined middlemen charging hefty fees to lobby for presidential pardons.
The pardon report also revived hidden-camera reporting — once common on the show but used less in recent years — as the stopwatch and backdrop graphics were updated with sleeker design.
Trump remained a target of sharp language: the broadcast called the Iran war “costly and unpopular” and described some pardon recipients as “unrepentant financial con men” and Jan. 6 participants as “rioters.”
That continuity may be the main takeaway: despite weeks of turmoil around Weiss’s arrival, America’s most-watched newsmagazine opened its 59th season looking more evolved than overhauled.