60 MINUTES II

'''60 Minutes II''', also known as '60 Minutes Wednesday' and '60 Minutes' (see Name changes), is a weekly primetime newsmagazine television program intended to replicate the "signature style, journalistic quality and integrity" of the original ''60 Minutes'' series.
It aired on CBS 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.

Contents

Correspondents

Killian Documents

Awards

Name changes

References

Correspondents

The broadcast included original reporting from its team of correspondents and from other CBS News 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, Bob Simon, Charlie Rose, Vicki Mabrey, Scott Pelley and Lara Logan. The following correspondents also worked on segments for the program: Christiane Amanpour, Ed Gordon, Charles Grodin, Carol Marin and Jimmy Tingle.

Killian Documents

Main articles: 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, President George W. Bush 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.^[1][2] Their source, former Texas Army National Guard officer Bill Burkett, had misled a CBS producer about the source of the documents. The senior producer on the story, Mary Mapes, 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.

Awards

''60 Minutes II'' earned a number of awards, including several Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards.^[3]

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 stated at the time, "The Roman numeral II created some confusion on the part of the viewers and suggested a watered-down version."^[4]
After the Killian documents controversy, the show was renamed ''60 Minutes Wednesday'' to differentiate it from the original ''60 Minutes'' 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.

References

1. Dan Rather Statement On Memos
2. CBS Names Memo Probe Panel
3. Program Facts
4. '60 Minutes' times 2; Eye spinoff renamed after original newsmag