Don Hewitt

Donald Shepard Hewitt Under Hewitt's leadership, 60 Minutes was the only news program ever rated as the nation's top-ranked television program, which it accomplished five times. Hewitt produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960. Hewitt's family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, shortly after his birth, where his father worked as a classified advertising manager for the Boston Herald American. His family later lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from New Rochelle High School, in New Rochelle, New York.

College and early career Hewitt attended New York University and started his journalism career in 1942 as head copyboy for the New York Herald Tribune. He joined the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1943 and served as a journalist for Stars and Stripes in London. Hewitt later returned to sea as an ensign in the Naval Reserve. After World War II ended in 1945, Hewitt returned to his job as copyboy for the Tribune, then worked for The Associated Press at a bureau in Memphis, Tennessee. However, his wife Mary Weaver—whom he married while working in Memphis—wanted to go to New York City, so he moved back.

Back in New York City, Hewitt started working at the E.W. Scripps Company-owned photo agency ACME Newspictures, which was later merged into co-owned news service United Press.

Career at CBS News Hewitt soon received a lucrative offer at the CBS television network, which was seeking someone who had "picture experience" to help with production of television broadcast. In 1965, Friendly, who had become the president of CBS, slyly demoted Hewitt from his executive producer role, without firing him from CBS. During the ensuing period of "boredom", he conceived of the concept for 60 Minutes.

60 Minutes In 1968, he launched the eight-time Emmy Award-winning show 60 Minutes as creator and executive producer. Inspired by magazines and cinema, Hewitt was upfront about the mixture of serious and lighthearted news stories, stating that "I unashamedly admit I stole this programme lock, stock and barrel, from Life magazine." Within ten years, the show had reached the top 10 in viewership, a position it maintained for 21 of the following 22 seasons, until the 1999–2000 season. After blowback, a more complete presentation of the story was allowed to air, but the handling of the issue remained "a dark, sorry period in the otherwise virtuous life of 60 Minutes." The scandal was the inspiration for the 1999 film The Insider; Hewitt was portrayed in the film by Philip Baker Hall.

Declining ratings at 60 Minutes—after decades of being in the top 10, the show had dropped in rankings to number 20—contributed to what became a public debate in 2002 about whether it was time for CBS to replace Hewitt at 60 Minutes. According to The New York Times, Jeff Fager, producer of 60 Minutes II, was being floated as a possible replacement,

In 2018, an internal CBS investigation found that in the 1990s Hewitt had been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a former CBS employee over a period of years. The original settlement amount of $450,000 was renegotiated several times; CBS had determined that the employee's allegations were credible and, by 2018, had paid her over $5 million in settlements in exchange for her silence.

Personal life and death Hewitt was married three times: Mary Weaver, with whom he had two sons: Jeffrey and Steven. he also adopted her daughter, Jilian Childers, from a previous marriage.

Honors 1987: Hewitt received the Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association 1988: In addition to several Peabody Awards given to 60 Minutes, Hewitt was given a personal Peabody Award, for his accomplishments that have "touch[ed] the lives of just about every American." 1989: Inducted into The Television Academy Hall Of Fame 1992: Hewitt won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. 1993: Hewitt and 60 Minutes were elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2001, PublicAffairs published Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television, in which Hewitt chronicles his life as a newsman.