60 Minutes

Jeremy Wells will take an in-depth look at the state of New Zealand cricket for 60 Minutes next week.

The self-confessed cricket nerd will chat to current captain Brendan McCullum and examine whether the game is in crisis in this country.

60 Minutes producer Belinda Henley wanted an in-depth look at the controversial national team and had no doubt that Wells was the best reporter for the story. “I think he is one of the most creative and intelligent broadcasters in New Zealand. I wanted to do a story on the Black Caps and he was, in my mind, the only man for the job. ” Continue reading »

The world’s most successful television current affairs programme, 60 Minutes, moves to Prime with a fresh new look for 2013.

The multi-award winning series, renowned for its hard-hitting investigative reports, is part of a range of new world-class programming which will screen on the free-to-air network as part of a studio volume deal with CBS Studios International. Continue reading »

They were both once political editors on rival channels but now best mates Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner are going to co-host TV3′s new current affairs show, 3rd Degree, which replaces 60 Minutes which is moving to Prime in 2013.

Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner will front new current affairs programme 3rd Degree, coming to TV3 in 2013.

The weekly one-hour programme will feature stories from some of New Zealand’s top journalists, including Paula Penfold, Sarah Hall, Guyon Espiner and  Melanie Reid (the core team behind TV3’s award-winning ’60 Minutes’), and new additions to the team Phil Vine and Samantha Hayes.   Continue reading »

Prime’s new season launch also included the same sentiment used by TVNZ during their launch, that they had a stronger and more exciting range of programmes than ever before.  In Prime’s case, it is actually true.  Picking up the CBS deal has meant that a number of new shows will air on Prime from one of America’s biggest studios.  New shows like Vegas, Beauty and the Beast (starring NZ’s own Jay Ryan) and Elementary will provide excellent new US dramas while 60 Minutes will give Prime their first foray into current affairs.  There is also the new look American Idol which will air reasonably close to the US air dates as well.  There are a number of great looking NZ shows including a spectacular look at New Zealand From Above  and documentary series, Making New Zealand, about the big infrastructure projects that have made us.

Here is the complete list of what to look out for. Continue reading »

Twitter victim, Charlotte Dawson, tonight revealed the ferocity of the death threats that she recieved in a paid interview with 60 Minutes Australia. The 46 year old New Zealand native, ended up in hospital after she tweeted “you win x” with a picture of a hand holding tablets at 2.07am on Wednesday night. Her attempt at suicide highlights the severity of cyber bullying.

Here is the interview. Continue reading »

‘Heavenly Creature’, Anne Perry, speaks to Guyon Espiner in an exclusive television interview on 60 Minutes broadcast this Sunday (July 27) on TV3.

Perry, an internationally best-selling author, is better known in New Zealand as teenage murderer Juliet Hulme, who with her friend Pauline Parker killed Pauline’s mother in Christchurch, in 1954.

The subsequent court case made headlines all around the world. Juliet was found guilty and spent five and a half years in prison. Following her release, she changed her identity and became something of a recluse in Scotland, where she set about turning herself into a writer of murder mysteries. More than 12 million copies of her books have sold world wide. Continue reading »

The whistle-blower in the ACC privacy fiasco, Bronwyn Pullar, speaks to Melanie Reid on 60 Minutes in an exclusive television interview, broadcast this Sunday (June 10) on TV3.

The special 60 Minutes investigation ‘The Eye of the Storm’ will also feature Pullar’s tape recording of her infamous December meeting with ACC officials, which has never before been available to the New Zealand public. Continue reading »

The first in-depth interview with David Bain will be broadcast this Sunday (March 4) on 60 Minutes, 7.30pm on TV3.

David Bain was convicted of the murders of his parents, two sisters and brother in 1995. He served a 13-year jail sentence before the Privy Council ruled in May 2007 that there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.  In 2009, after a second trial, he was found not guilty.

In his first major television interview, Bain speaks frankly to 60 Minutes’ Melanie Reid about his life, the tragedy, and his daily struggle to lead a normal life.

“I struggle with it on a daily basis from the moment I wake up, because I find that I am reminded on a daily basis of the loss that has happened and what I don’t have in my life,” he says.

But, he also tells 60 Minutes:  “I’m determined to be positive about where my life is going to go.”

The interview comes after Joe Karam’s latest book Trial by Ambush and as David Bain prepares to speak publicly for the first time about his experiences, during the International Justice Conference held in Perth (March 8-11), where he is a keynote speaker in a line-up that includes Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter and Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton.

Melanie Reid visited Bain’s workplace on the outskirts of Auckland, and joined him in a new pastime, horse riding.  She says the man she interviewed is very different to the David Bain who has been talked about in news reports for nearly two decades.

“David spoke in depth about his experience from his arrest to release, life in prison, the retrial and the love and grief he feels for his family,” she says.  

“This is his story, a story that has never been heard.” 

In the 60 Minutes interview, Bain reiterates his innocence, saying:

“The only thing I can say to everybody out there, and to all my friends, and the thing that I’ve constantly said is I wasn’t there…I am innocent.  I did not kill my family.”

Asked how he coped with losing his family, Bain says:

‘I mean, thinking back over a lot of the circumstances that I found myself in I don’t know how I got through them. 

“I can only thank my upbringing, my family, my Mum and Dad [who] helped us with our education, with our upbringing again, with university studies, and helped us become the people we are. 

“And somewhere in there I guess was the learned strength and courage that they both had.” 

The David Bain Interview, 60 Minutes, 7.30pm Sunday on TV3.

7:30pm – Sunday, February 12 on TV 3

Returning with a brand new season, this week sees the 2012 premier of 60 Minutes, screening on Sunday, February 12 th at 7:30pm on 3. “We’re very excited to be back with another season of 60 Minutes,” says producer Terence Taylor. “This year we have Guyon Espiner on board and we’re expecting great things from him.”

“He has been an excellent parliamentary reporter, interviewer and political editor at TVNZ; 60 Minutes will be a new challenge for him and he is itching to get stuck in to it.”

As for what’s to come in this week’s season premier, Taylor says: “We’re kicking off the season with an outstanding story on New Zealand’s killer whales.”

“It has some amazing underwater shots, courtesy of BBC Worldwide, and some interesting conclusions.” Make sure not to miss this when 60 Minutes returns to our screens on Sunday, February 12 th at 7:30pm on 3.

TVNZ Political Editor Guyon Espiner will join TV3 in the New Year, as a journalist on flagship current affairs programme 60 Minutes.

Director of News and Current Affairs, Mark Jennings, says he is delighted to have Guyon joining the team.

“When you get an opportunity to snap up a journalist of Guyon’s calibre, you don’t hesitate,” he says.

“I have a great deal of respect for his work; he breaks stories and tells them well.  He is a great addition to our 60 Minutes team.”

Guyon has been TVNZs political editor since 2006, having joined the network in 2003.  Prior to TVNZ, Guyon had ten years experience in journalism, including working at Wellington’s Evening Post, and a stint as political editor of the Sunday Star Times.  He attended Canterbury University, and the Wellington Polytechnic Journalism School (now Massey).  He writes a political column in North & South.

60 Minutes is TV3’s weekly current affairs programme.  Presented by Mike McRoberts, it is a comprehensive blend of local and international reports, and interviews with people making the headlines, produced by some of New Zealand’s best investigative journalists.

Guyon will take up his new role in February 2012.