Showbiz
'60 Minutes' creator Don Hewitt dies, aged 86
Published Wednesday, Aug 19 2009, 17:25 BST | By Lara Martin
Rex Features
The former CBS newsman passed away at his Bridgehampton, New York home today. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Hewitt joined CBS News in 1948 and went on to produce the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1950.
He pitched the idea of 60 Minutes, a one-hour show that would mix hard news and feature stories, in 1968 and continued to produce the show until his retirement in June 2004.
According to the CBS website, it remains the number one news programme in the US and was awarded 73 Emmy Awards, 13 DuPont/Columbia University Awards and nine Peabody Awards under Hewitt's control.
He most recently served as executive producer for the first ever network television coverage of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show on NBC.
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