60 Minutes Creator Don Hewitt Dies

60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt died Wednesday. He was 86 years old.

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Hewitt, a veteran CBS newsman since 1948, was diagnosed with a small, contained tumor earlier this year and underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer.

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After Hewitt created the popular 60 Minutes program in 1968, which pioneered the TV newsmagazine format, he served as its executive producer until his retirement in 2004. It is now the most successful broadcast in the history of television journalism.

The TV news pioneer was also famous for producing the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, which many have said cost Richard Nixon the election.

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He was honored with the second annual Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he was awarded the Founders Emmy by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Hewitt is the author of Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television, which chronicles his life as a journalist.




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