What happens when an episode of 60 Minutes does not run for 60 minutes? We’ll find out when the episode on Sunday, October 8 goes for 90 minutes — one of six that will run an extra half-hour this season.
The longer episodes, following NFL doubleheaders on CBS, will have the usual three-stories-in-an-hour format, while the additional half hour will feature what Bill Owens, executive producer, calls “a two-part story,” with a pivot at the midpoint.
This Sunday, correspondent Lesley Stahl looks at 3D printing’s role in home building, and the Texas company Icon that is behind such an initiative. The second part of the story is about NASA tapping Icon to build landing pads, roads and perhaps even “human habitats” on the moon, Stahl said.
60 Minutes got a peek at what will soon be the first large community of 3D-printed houses. A Texas company is printing 100 of them, calling it a "paradigm shift" in how we build our homes. Lesley Stahl reports, Sunday. https://t.co/mEN4CWeXMW pic.twitter.com/SMMhpueHgpOctober 4, 2023
Stahl teased the longer episodes at the end of the program October 1. “If you have Sunday dinner with 60 Minutes, next week, there will be time for an extra helping,” Stahl said. “Following our usual three stories, we’ll have an all-new, two-part edition.”
The longer episodes came to be when George Cheeks, CBS Entertainment president and CEO, reached out to Owens with the idea. Owens was intrigued but knew the longer episodes would not be easy.
“It’s a bit of a challenge,“ he said. “We didn’t want to water down or dilute what has been a tried-and-true pattern. 60 Minutes is 60 minutes for a reason — you get three stories.”
But the longer episodes “give you a little flexibility to do some other stories,” Owens added.
Another two-parter sees Anderson Cooper look into a slave ship that sunk in an Alabama river.
Season 56 of 60 Minutes kicked off September 17. Owens was named executive producer in 2019.
He didn’t have an issue with the episode length clashing with the program’s venerable title. “Our first worry was making sure we could do it,” he said. “Making sure 60 Minutes, even at 90 minutes, gets over the bar for the audience.”
60 Minutes hired a couple extra producers and associate producers to help with the longer episodes. Owens said management “absolutely took care of us.”
60 Minutes isn’t the only CBS program going long this season. Episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race are 90 minutes all season long. Jeff Probst, Survivor host and executive producer, told B+C the longer episodes were not about CBS looking to fill the schedule with the writers and actors strikes limiting scripted programming. “I’ve actually been pitching CBS to let us experiment with 90-minute episodes for the last several years,” he said.
Both Probst and Owens said there are no plans right now to stick with the longer episodes for their shows beyond the current season. “We’re not thinking that far ahead,” Owens said. “We just want to make sure we do 60 Minutes consistently and well” at the longer length.
It may be more work, but Owens said the 60 Minutes crew is psyched to stretch its legs. “People are excited to be able to take a swing at the two-part stories,” he said.
