60 Minutes

Sunday, April 10 at 7.30pm on Nine

Wedding of the Century

It’s a right royal extravaganza! At the end of this month, an estimated three billion people will tune in to see the commoner Kate Middleton exchange vows with Prince William – the heir to the British throne. Theirs is the most anticipated union since Charles and Diana tied the knot thirty years ago. Of course, that didn’t end so well, and for a while there, the monarchy teetered on the brink. The British royals desperately need this marriage to stick, and they’re doing whatever it takes to protect their fairytale couple. But watching Kate dodge the paparazzi, you can’t help but get an uneasy feeling of déjà vouz.

Reporter: Michael Usher

Producers: Danny Keens, Julia Timms

Lord of the Web

We’re a social lot, us Aussies – even on our computers. One in three of us has joined Facebook – the social-networking site that now connects 500 million people world-wide. Facebook’s super-nerd CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has created one of the most dominant forces on the internet, but this 26-year-old isn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot. And in this rare interview with Lesley Stahl from American 60 Minutes, he reveals what’s next in his plan for world wide web domination.

Reporter: Lesley Stahl

Producer: Shachar Bar-on

A Deadly Secret

Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice. But that’s apparently what’s happened to a NSW farmer called Robert Geeves. He’s lost two girlfriends in mysterious circumstances – ten years apart. One young woman was shot dead, her body stripped and left in a wheelbarrow. The other disappeared, leaving behind her newborn son. The police believe she’s dead, too. They’re also certain that someone in the small and close-knit town of Harden is keeping a deadly secret.

60 Minutes, Sunday April 3, 7.30pm on Nine.

Croc Attack

It happened in a split second. One moment Todd Bairstow was fishing, the next a crocodile had him by the legs and was dragging him into the water. For thirty terrifying minutes, Todd battled for his life, refusing to give in even when the croc pulled him into a death roll. With crocodile numbers on the rise, close encounters like Todd’s are happening more and more often in our Top End. The only difference is, they don’t usually end so well. Certainly, when you hear Todd’s story, you’ll be amazed that he got out alive.

Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Stephen Rice, Ali Smith
 
Bieber Fever

Ask any music executive; there’s no market quite as lucrative as teenage girls. They scream louder, are more devoted and spend more money than anyone else. Win them over and you’ve got it made. Just look at Justin Bieber. Platinum records.  Music awards.  He’s even sung at the White House. All this and he’s only just turned seventeen. Michael Usher met up with the Biebster between shows in London, as he prepared to bring his world tour down under. The kid’s certainly at the top of his game. But what on earth will he do for an encore?

Reporter: Michael Usher
Producers: Danny Keens, Sandra Cleary
 
Second Chance

Being a teenager is a tough gig, but how much harder must it be for the thousands of adolescent girls who stumble into motherhood each year? While their friends party and gossip, these young mums – really just kids themselves – only want a good night’s sleep. They must feel like they’re living on a different planet and it’s no wonder so many of them drop out and end up squandering their best years on welfare. But there is another way. It’s not easy, far from it; still, you don’t get too many second chances at life.

Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producer: Karen Willing

Sunday, March 27 at 7.30pm on Nine

Inconceivable

It’s inconceivable. A woman falls pregnant through IVF, only to be told that the child growing inside her belongs to another couple. Well, it happened to Carolyn Savage and husband Sean when a fertility clinic implanted the wrong embryos. It was an unforgivable mix-up, with no hope of a happy ending for either side. What Carolyn and Sean decided to do will touch your heart and challenge your perceptions of just what motherhood means.

Reporter: Allison Langdon

Producers: Nick Greenaway, Kirsty Thomson

Jen’s Fairytale

She’s Australia’s very own Cinderella. One day, Jennifer Hawkins was just another pretty face on an Aussie beach, the next she was declared the most beautiful woman in the universe. And her life changed forever. She was whisked from Newcastle, installed in New York, and introduced to a fairy tale world of private jets, powerful people and glamorous parties. She even managed to snag the prince and the castle along the way. But no matter how high our Jen soars, we are delighted to report that she has managed to keep both slippers planted firmly on the ground.

Reporter: Charles Wooley

Producer: Sandra Cleary

Gaddafi’s Last Stand

It started with a single voice, a young fruit vendor in a small North African market who one day shouted: “Enough!” It became one of the largest demonstrations of people power ever seen in the Arab world. The governments of Egypt and Tunisia have already fallen, and, for a while there, it seemed every dictatorship in the Middle East was going to be swept away. Ray Martin has just spent a fortnight in the region, including a week in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the man known as The Mad Dog, is desperately clinging to power. It’s a chaotic and unpredictable place at the best of times. Right now, it’s downright dangerous; but that’s what happens when you corner a mad dog.

Reporter: Ray Martin

Producer: Stephen Taylora

The Great Divide
Some say it’s the very thing that makes Australia great. Others believe it threatens our national identity. It seems right now nothing divides opinion like multiculturalism. Our government insists it’s working here, a shining example for the rest of the world, but in some countries like Britain and Germany, they’ve declared multiculturalism a failure, a disastrous social policy that’s torn communities apart. But let’s be frank here. This debate isn’t so much about race as religion and a fear of one in particular – Islam.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producers: Danny Keens, Julia Timms
 
Eye Spy
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to fly like a bird or to gallop with the wildebeest or hunt with the mighty polar bear? British film maker John Downer imagined all these things and found a way to let us all share in the experience. His wildlife documentaries make you feel like you’re actually there – a part of the flock, the herd or the pride. John gets closer to the animals than anyone else has dared. And as Bob Simon of American 60 Minutes discovered, he does it using technology that looks like it’s been lifted straight from a James Bond blockbuster. The result is an intimate portrayal of animals like we’ve never seen before.
Reporter: Bob Simon, CBS 60 Minutes
Producer: Michael Gavshon

Meltdown
How do you get your head around what is happening in Japan? First, there was the monster earthquake, many thousand times more powerful than the one that devastated Christchurch. Then came the tsunami. More than a week later, we still don’t know how many souls were carried away by the ocean, and now there’s the threat of a nuclear meltdown. Of all the miseries that have been visited on the Japanese people in recent days, this has to be the most terrifying. You can’t see it like a wave, or feel it like an aftershock. All you can do is wait and hope and try not to panic.Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producers: Phil Goyen, Steve Burling

Sunday, March 13 at 7.30pm on Nine

Wiped Clean

Imagine waking up one morning and you’ve forgotten everything about yourself. You don’t recognise your face, you don’t know your family, you can’t even remember your own name. Well that’s what happened to Nicole Caird and Claire Robertson. Every few minutes their minds wipe clean, stealing every scrap of memory, from the birth of their children to the reason they’re sitting in front of a television camera. And what is especially alarming is that the culprit is a virus that most of us have lurking in our bodies.

Reporter: Liz Hayes

Producer: Phil Goyen

A Deadly Secret

Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice, but that’s apparently what’s happened to a NSW farmer called Robert Geeves. He’s lost two girlfriends in mysterious circumstances – ten years apart. One young woman was shot dead, her body stripped and left in a wheelbarrow. The other disappeared, leaving behind her newborn son. The police believe she’s dead too. They’re also certain that someone in the small and close knit town of Harden is keeping a deadly secret.

Reporter: Liam Bartlett

Producer: Stephen Rice

The Beauty Factory

When our Jennifer Hawkins was crowned Miss Universe, we all felt rightly proud. What we didn’t know was that Jennifer had the odds stacked against her because in countries like Venezuela, gorgeous looking women train for beauty pageants like Olympic athletes. They’ve become the role models for every little girl and every woman in this part of the world where beauty is an obsession. They’re coached at special pageant academies and even given extreme makeovers by cosmetic surgeons, because having a pretty face is just the beginning.

Reporter: Ray Martin

Producer: Sandra Cleary

Sunday, March 6 at 7.30pm on Nine

Little Miracles

These days families come in all shapes and sizes. The traditional brood of mum, dad and a couple of kids is fast becoming a quaint stereotype. But the family you’re about to meet is really pushing the envelope and raising a few hackles as well. Mel Keevers and Rosie Nolan are a lesbian couple. They’re already raising a young daughter and now they’ve welcomed quintuplets into the world. That’s right, five more kids. But the little bubs were born far too early and even surviving the next few months will be a challenge. And that’s just the start of the tough road that lies ahead for them and their two mums.

Reporter: Karl Stefanovic

Producers: Julia Timms, Karen Willing

Frozen Fortunes

Liam Bartlett wondered what on earth he’d done wrong when we packed him off to the desolate wilds of Siberia. After all, it’s not the kind of place you generally visit willingly. People used to be dragged there in chains and then worked to death, but this gigantic frozen slab of Russia is getting an image makeover. It may never rival New York or Paris as a tourist destination, but right now there’s a minerals boom going on that dwarfs anything that’s happening in Australia. And, if you’re an investor, right now icy Siberia is hot, hot, hot.

Reporter: Liam Bartlett

Producer: Howard Sacre

Oh, Mr Sheen!

What on earth is going on with Charlie Sheen? He was the highest paid actor on television, now he’s out of work and it seems out of control, battling a serious drug addiction among other things. It’s a celebrity car crash and Andrea Canning of the American ABC network has witnessed the entire meltdown firsthand. She was invited into Charlie Sheen’s life to meet his family and hear his version of what’s been going on in his life. It’s crazy stuff alright.

Reporter: Andrea Canning, ABC Network

Producers: Geoff Martz, Brian O’Keefe

A Mother’s Burden

It’s a face only a mother could love. Fifteen years after the Port Arthur massacre, that photo of Martin Bryant still chills the soul. You look into those crazy eyes and wonder if someone should have known what was coming. Was there some tell-tale sign that this man was capable of mass murder? It’s a question that torments Martin Bryant’s mother, Carleen. For the first time, she talks about that terrible day and what would make her son – her own flesh and blood – go on a killing spree that ranks amongst the deadliest of the 20th century.

Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Danny Keens

Going Gaga

Right now, she’s the hottest pop star in the world – and the most outrageous. In just three years, Stefani Germanotta, AKA Lady Gaga, has shot from obscurity to extraordinary fame. But her meteoric rise was no accident. Those notorious stunts and attention-grabbing outfits are all part of a carefully-planned strategy. Her arrival at last week’s Grammys, encased in a Perspex “egg”, just another way to grab the headlines. And, as Anderson Cooper of American 60 Minutes discovered when he joined her on her world tour, Lady Gaga has more outrage in store.

Reporter: Anderson Cooper, CBS 60 Minutes
Producer: John Hamlin

From the Ruins

We’ve never known a summer like it. Floods, cyclones, bushfires and now the devastating earthquake in New Zealand. Watching rescue teams going about their grim work has been heart wrenching, but there’s also been incredible stories of heroism and survival. Ray Martin has been in Christchurch.

Reporter: Ray MartinProducers: Stephen Rice, Jo Townsend

Sunday, February 20 at 7.30pm on Nine

The Zahra Baker Mystery

The body of a little Australian girl is found dumped in the backblocks of America. Her dad has some suspicious holes in his memory. Her stepmother has been locked up, but so far hasn’t been charged with murder. So what happened to ten-year-old Zahra Baker? It’s a crime that’s horrified and fascinated people on both sides of the Pacific. On Sunday night, for the first time, Zahra’s dad tells his version of events. It’s no wonder police are having so much trouble solving the mystery.

Reporter: Liz Hayes

Producers: Phil Goyen, Kirsty Thomson

Faith, Love and Happiness

Nicole Kidman has been to hell and back more than once. There was the divorce, a miscarriage, marital troubles and fertility issues. Not that you could tell anything was wrong from watching her on the red carpet. No matter what was going on in our Nic’s personal life, she always presented a cool and unflappable image, even icy at times. But love and motherhood seem to have melted away a lot of that reserve, because when Karl Stefanovic met Nicole in Los Angeles, she was up for a chat. She was even happy to go into the nitty gritty of surrogacy.

Reporter: Karl Stefanovic

Producer: Sandra Cleary

The Gift

It would have been easy to write off Derek Paravacini as a hopeless case. He was born with the cards stacked against him – blind, severely brain damaged and profoundly autistic. But behind Derek’s limitations lay a secret gift; he was blessed with one of the greatest musical minds of his generation. Derek is a classic study of disability and genius all bundled up in the one extraordinary package. Meet him and be amazed. The human brain really does work in mysterious ways.

Reporter: Liam Bartlett

Producer: Howard Sacre

A story about a killer whale at SeaWorld has scored 60 Minutes a nomination at the 25th Anniversary Genesis Awards.

The international awards ceremony pays tribute to news and entertainment sources that produce content that raises awareness of the plight of animals.

The 60 Minutes story was the work of reporter Michael Usher and producers Stephen Rice and Skye Gilkeson and has been nominated in the Brigitte Bardot International Award category.

The story, entitled Natural Born Killers, aired last year and focussed on a killer whale that kille dits trainer at SeaWorld in Florida.

Source: The Spy Report

Sunday, February 13 at 7.30pm on Nine

Captain Fantastic

Qantas has long been revered as the safest airline in the world. But its reputation has taken a beating of late.

Literally. In November last year, an engine on one of its massive A380s exploded in mid-air. A lot of things went wrong that day. In fact, the flight crew had to deal with more than 60 separate system failures. But as you’ll see on Sunday night, a lot of things also went right, thanks largely to the man at the controls. Only his cool head and keen instincts got that plane down safely. And when you hear the full story, you’ll be amazed at how he did it.

Torn Apart

Occasionally in this job, you hear a story that is so gut-wrenchingly tragic that you wonder where people find the strength to get out of bed each day. That’s how Michael Usher felt when he met Stacey Keep and her husband, Matthew. They lost their 23-month-old daughter, Jessica, during the Queensland floods. The raging water literally ripped the little girl out of Stacey’s arms. There’s nothing you can say or do to make things better. So we just listened. And we cried bucket-loads. And we tried to focus on the little miracles of that dreadful day.

Enemy of the State

If the life story of Julian Assange was ever made into a movie, it would play like a cross between “Conspiracy Theory” and “Revenge of the Nerds”. Assange started out as a geeky teenage computer hacker in Melbourne. Twenty years later, he’s gleefully embarrassing corporations and countries, including Australia, through his website – WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks posts highly confidential information online for anyone to read. You can see why the establishment hates him. But he’s had his wings clipped of late. Right now he’s holed up in England waiting for the courts there to decide whether to extradite him to Sweden on rape charges. And if the Swedes luck out, the US government might take a crack at him on espionage charges. Steve Kroft of American

60 Minutes spoke to the man who can’t and won’t keep a secret.