The BEST episodes of 60 Minutes season 48
Every episode of 60 Minutes season 48, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of 60 Minutes season 48!
60 Minutes has been on the air since 1968, beginning on a Tuesday, but spending most of its time on Sundays, where it remains today. This popular news magazine provides both hard hitting investigations, interviews and features, along with people in the news and current events. 60 Minutes has set unprecedented records in the Nielsen's ratings with a number 1 rating, five times, making it among the most successful TV programs in all of television history. This series has won more Emmy awards than any other news program and in 2003, Don Hewitt, the creator (back in 1968), was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Emmy, along with the 60 Minute correspondents. Added to the 11 Peabody awards, this phenomenally long-lived series has collected 78 awards up to the 2005 season and remains among the viewers top choice for news magazine features.
#1 - A New Direction on Drugs, The Greatest, Little Jazz Man
Season 48 - Episode 40 - Aired 6/5/2016
Top drug official Michael Botticelli says the old war on drugs is all wrong; 60 Minutes revisits a classic 1996 segment on Muhammad Ali, who died at age 74; And, Joey Alexander plays jazz like a veteran, but he’s just 12 years old.
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#2 - President Obama, 30 Years on Death Row
Season 48 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/2015
Steve Kroft questions President Obama on topics including Russia’s incursion in Syria, ISIS and the 2016 presidential race; then, Bill Whitaker interviews a prosecutor who admits his cowardice and indifference led to a wrongful murder conviction.
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#3 - Morley Safer: A Reporter's Life
Season 48 - Episode 36 - Aired 5/15/2016
A celebration of Morley Safer’s career includes interviews with former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, historian David McCullough and retired U.S. Brig. Gen. Joe Stringham.
#4 - Hands off the Wheel, Patrick Kennedy, The Hidden Holocaust
Season 48 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/2015
Reporter Bill Whitaker explores self-driving cars. Also: an interview with former representative Patrick Kennedy, who discusses alcoholism and addiction; a portrait of Father Patrick Desbois as he searches to uncover the unknown victims of the Holocaust.
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Season 48 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/2015
The faces of heroin include the young, middle-to-upper class and suburban. What was once thought of as an inner-city problem is now a national epidemic. Smart-gun technology is not new, yet these guns are not mass-produced or sold in the U.S., partly due to fears they are a backdoor to greater gun control. Scott Pelley reports on the Smithsonian and the Slave Wrecks Project’s journey to recover the first artifacts known to be preserved from a slave ship.
#6 - Seeking Asylum, Make-A-Wish, Revis Island
Season 48 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/18/2015
With thousands of new arrivals coming daily from the Mideast, how many can Germany really handle? Anderson Cooper reports; then, how do Make-A-Wish wishes come true? Bill Whitaker reports; and, Armen Keteyian profiles Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis
#7 - Vice President Biden, Inside the Air War, The New Burma
Season 48 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/2015
Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, speak with Norah O’Donnell; then, 60 Minutes goes inside the U.S. command center for the air war against ISIS; and, as Burma heads to historic elections, Bill Whitaker reports on the country’s democratic movement.
#8 - The Paris Attacks, The Speaker of the House, Football and the Brain
Season 48 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/2015
Scott Pelley interviews survivors of the Paris terror attacks; then, newly-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan discusses his plans for the job he almost turned down; and, Steve Kroft examines the state of concussion safety and science in football.
#9 - President Putin, Trump, The Greatest Escape
Season 48 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/2015
Russian President Vladimir Putin talks about his country’s presence in Syria, the Islamic State group, conflict in Ukraine, and his feelings about President Obama and Americans; Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - The Last Prisoner, The Execution of Joseph Wood, Taking on the Eiger
Season 48 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/29/2015
Alan Gross talks with Scott Pelley in his first interview about his five-year captivity in Cuba; Bill Whitaker reports on the longest execution in U.S. history; 60 Minutes cameras capture an extreme sportsman descending the Eiger in the Swiss Alps.
#11 - Confidential Informants, Bonobos
Season 48 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/6/2015
A report on young confidential informers used in the war on drugs; a visit to an orphanage in the Congo that cares for bonobos.
#12 - Inside Apple, Michael Caine
Season 48 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/20/2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook addresses issues concerning his company including encryption technology, corporate taxes, and manufacturing products in China; and, Michael Caine, the veteran British actor who’s made dozens of films and won two Oscars over 50 years, is still going strong as a leading man at the age of 82.
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#13 - The Gaskos, The Execution of Joseph Wood, Danny Clinch
Season 48 - Episode 45 - Aired 7/10/2016
The execution of Joseph Wood, which took nearly two hours, the longest in U.S. history; federal law enforcement trackers discuss how they located and arrested gangster Whitey Bulger; photographer Danny Clinch.
#14 - 28 Pages, Rising in the East, Switching Teams
Season 48 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/10/2016
Top secret report may hold clues about Saudi support for 9/11; “Hollywood, watch out,” says an American film producer on the rise of Chinese cinema; and, a transgender Harvard swimmer’s choice.
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#15 - After Shock, $80 Million Con, The Last Vaquitas
Season 48 - Episode 38 - Aired 5/22/2016
David Martin reports on a National Guard recruiting program that was taken advantage of by some guardsmen; Anderson Cooper reports on the most lucrative art fraud scam in history; Sharyn Alfonsi reports on the world’s most endangered marine mammal.
#16 - Preserving The Past
Season 48 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/28/2016
Scott Pelley reports on an African American museum in Washington, D.C.; Morley Safer looks at architectural treasures falling into disrepair in Italy; Lara Logan visits the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona.
#17 - Strike-through, Fintech, The Slave Ship
Season 48 - Episode 51 - Aired 8/21/2016
60 Minutes investigates medical gear sold during Ebola crisis; then, Lesley Stahl reports on what’s being called the financial technology revolution; and, a journey to recover the first artifacts known to be preserved from a slave ship.
#18 - Mob Stories
Season 48 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/27/2015
Stories of murder, mayhem and the Mafia on a special edition of 60 Minutes
#19 - The Resurrection of St. Benedicts, Presidente Macri, Cornel West
Season 48 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/20/2016
Their school motto is “Whatever hurts my brother hurts me” and their graduation rate is 98 percent. Scott Pelley reports on a unique school in Newark.
#20 - Money Laundering, Greenland Melting
Season 48 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/31/2016
See what happens when hidden cameras capture New York lawyers being asked to move highly questionable funds into the U.S. Steve Kroft reports; then, Sharyn Alfonsi reports from the top of the world on one of the most significant efforts to study climate change happening today.
#21 - Hacking Your Phone, 30 Years on Death Row, The Collider
Season 48 - Episode 53 - Aired 9/4/2016
How cellphones and mobile phone networks are vulnerable to hacking; then, the wrongful murder conviction of a man sentenced to death; and, extra dimensions? Dark matter? A more powerful Collider hunts for clues.
#22 - The Heroin Epidemic, Dialing for Dollars, and Gold Star Parents
Season 48 - Episode 32 - Aired 4/24/2016
Should heroin be treated as a medical or a legal problem? Bill Whitaker reports from Ohio on how the hard-hit state is handling the crisis; including its use of drug courts. Stop fundraising, start working, says Fla. Rep. David Jolly, who is seeking to ban federal-elected officials from dialing for dollars. They’re called “Gold Star Parents” and, once a year, they come together to remember the military heroes who are their children and to share an intimate truth: life is lost, but love does not end
#23 - Prime Minister Trudeau, King of Coal, Death Row in Livingston Texas
Season 48 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/6/2016
Justin Trudeau, the new, young leader and scion of Canadian political royalty talks to Lara Logan; then, Anderson Cooper reports on the landmark case against coal company CEO Don Blankenship; and, 60 Minutes cameras go inside the busiest death row in America.
#24 - Crime and Punishment, Christopher Wheeldon, Bubba
Season 48 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/3/2016
Privacy, weekend leave, keys...This is prison? Bill Whitaker reports on the German prison system; then, pro golfer Bubba Watson tells Sharyn Alfonsi he wants to improve himself, not his game; and, Lesley Stahl profiles a choreographer who is bringing ballet to Broadway – and beyond.
#25 - Update on the Orlando Mass Shooting, Lost in the Bermuda Triangle, Hamilton
Season 48 - Episode 41 - Aired 6/12/2016
Scott Pelley’s report on the sinking of the cargo ship El Faro; and, 60 Minutes director’s cut of “Hamilton” offers more on the Broadway smash and may be last chance to see Lin-Manuel Miranda before he steps down.