Isn’t tonight’s Gone Girl story a rehash of a Sunday Night story from a few years ago? Didn’t they also do a re-enactment or re-creation of the laundry chute?
Sunday 9 October at 8.30 pm
DEATH IN A CAFÉ
A young woman walks into a busy upmarket café in Jakarta to have a coffee with her friends. According to police, what happens next is truly shocking. A deliberate poisoning, all caught on CCTV cameras. Australian resident Jessica Wongso is now on trial for murdering her friend, Mirna Salihin, who she met when they were studying in Sydney. The prosecution accuses Jessica of spiking Mirna’s iced coffee with cyanide and then calmly standing by and watching her beautiful friend’s last gasps of breath. And this story is even more bizarre – it’s alleged the reason for the killing is rage fuelled by jealousy. Jessica resented her friend’s fairytale life so much she decided to end it. Four judges in an Indonesian court are trying to determine the truth, but the stakes are particularly high because if she’s found guilty of the crime, Jessica Wongso could face the death penalty.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Laura Sparkes
KYLIE’S LAW
It’s entirely understandable that we prefer not to talk – or even think – about death. But when asked, more than 70 per cent of Australians are clear on one thing – their support for voluntary euthanasia. We want to be given choice about how and when we die. It’s a sensitive issue for governments, but in South Australia the politicians seem to be listening to Kylie Monaghan, the brave and beautiful 35-year-old woman who is the face of a new campaign to legalise euthanasia – even though the cancer she suffers from is so advanced it’s denying her the choice she wants. Among the many Australians supporting Kylie is Andrew Denton, who reveals to Liz Hayes the very personal reasons motivating him to fight for voluntary euthanasia legislation.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Garry McNab
BIG BROTHER
Everyone knows the Bee Gees because they’re responsible for half a century of hit songs. It’s a remarkable achievement in a business where success is rare, and if it does happen, is usually fleeting rather than enduring. But the Gibb boys – Barry and the twins Robin and Maurice – just refused to leave the stage even when times were tough. Now, sadly, there’s only one Bee Gee left, big brother Barry Gibb. He says the show must go on and this 70-year-old grandfather of seven has a new album, his first in 15 years, and is preparing to once again hit the road.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Garry McNab
Sunday 16 October at 8.30 pm
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
WATCH THE SNEAK PEEK
Whether they’re at the ground or on the couch at home, every Australian cricket fan thinks they’re an expert, and making brutal assessments about the players is all part of the sport of watching the sport. Not surprisingly, when the name Michael Clarke is mentioned everyone has an opinion. The statistics show he was one of our greatest players and captains. But while we loved him scoring runs and winning games for Australia we could never quite figure out what he was doing off the field – or why. As well, Clarke often seemed a bit too flashy for our liking, and sometimes not reverential enough about the game. As you would expect though, the man himself has a very different view. In the year since he retired from the game, Michael Clarke has had plenty of time to reflect on his career, and as Allison Langdon discovers, he now wants to set the record straight on all the headlines.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Jo Townsend
MH17
With the push of a button, in July 2014 somebody in eastern Ukraine launched a missile which brought down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. It killed 298 innocent people, including 38 Australian citizens and permanent residents. It is our greatest loss of life overseas since the Bali bombing. Whether it was a stupid mistake or an act of pure evil, investigators are determined to track down those responsible and bring them to justice. In fact they already know who they’re looking for, which is in big part because of the efforts of the Australian Federal Police. Almost 500 AFP officers have been involved in a joint international taskforce, and for the first time they take us inside the extraordinarily detailed investigation.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producers: Howard Sacre, Alice Dalley
THE LONG ROAD AHEAD
The founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, liked to recite the Latin term “Citius, Altius, Fortius”. It translates as “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. However, the pursuit of sporting supremacy comes with risks, as Australian silver medallist Sam Willoughby, 25, has tragically discovered. This elite BMX rider is a two-time world champion and a sponsor’s delight. But four weeks ago he crashed while training in the USA, and in a terrible instant lost all feeling below his chest. Now he faces his greatest uphill battle: not to cycle again, simply to walk. Sam is determined to win this fight and with the support of his wonderful family, including fiancée Alise Post, he is already proving what a great champion he really is.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producer: Phil Goyen
Sunday 23 October at 8.30 pm
DARK SECRET
It’s more than three decades since young hitchhiker Tony Jones disappeared while holidaying in North Queensland. He is presumed murdered, but until now there has been very little information uncovered about what exactly happened to him. On 60 MINUTES, Ross Coulthart investigates this baffling cold case and interviews key witnesses who bravely break a code of silence to reveal long-held, dark secrets. Their evidence suggests the then 20-year-old victim was killed and his body disposed of in an outback slaughterhouse. It’s a gruesome crime, stranger than fiction, but this case looks to be on the verge of being solved – and finally the perpetrators may be about to face justice.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Grace Tobin
BIG BUSINESS
There’s a new, highly motivated and hugely successful group emerging in the business world. They’re called “Mumpreneurs”, super-smart Australian mothers who are deserting the chaos of corporate life, preferring instead to make millions by working from home. China is one of their booming markets because hundreds of millions of other mums can’t get enough of anything clean and green from Australia. All these women need is one brilliant idea, and a whole lot of chutzpah.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producers: Sean Power, Jo Townsend
BREAKTHROUGH
Medical researchers trying to solve the puzzle of disease are always reluctant to use the “C” word until completely sure they can prove the cure. But for sufferers of multiple sclerosis, a condition which has baffled doctors for generations, there has been some very encouraging and welcome news: a breakthrough treatment using stem cells, which is having truly remarkable results. MS patients, who could barely cope with the debilitating illness, are regaining their mobility and in some cases even their sight. But now the bad news: it’s almost impossible to get the treatment here and that has forced hundreds of frustrated Australians overseas in search of help.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Alice Dalley
That Mumpreneurs story sounds like something you’d expect on A Current Affair but I guess 60 Minutes takes those stories on now since ACA is full of infotainment and infomercials.
[quote]FORMER 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice is writing his side of the Beirut child snatch saga, in what is poised to be the most explosive literary tell-all of 2017.
Sunday 30 October at 8.30 pm
MARRIED TO A MONSTER
In Australia there has been an explosion in the number of cases of men arrested for trading child sex abuse material online. It’s a sickening crime and those involved in viewing, producing and peddling sexually explicit images of children on their computers face substantial penalties, including prison, if caught. On 60 MINUTES, Peter Stefanovic meets some of the hidden victims of these crimes – the unsuspecting partners of the perpetrators. They are women whose lives have been ruined because the men they loved, and thought they knew, were really monsters.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producers: Garry McNab, Gareth Harvey
GEM OF AFRICA
When Gemma Sisia used to tell people her dream was to build a school for the poorest of the poor kids of Africa, she’d be told it was a nice idea but that she was mad and it would never happen. However, for the farm girl from Armidale in northern New South Wales, all those doubters were exactly the incentive she needed to start raising money. Gemma still remembers the first donation she ever received – ten dollars from a woman called Agnes – and she hasn’t stopped fundraising since. Fourteen years ago she opened her St Jude’s school in Arusha, which quickly established itself as a showpiece of education in Tanzania. Today, every one of the hundreds of pupils who have studied at St Jude’s has just one person to thank for their success: the priceless Aussie Gem of Africa.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Nick Greenaway
HILLARY
For months presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have given each other such an almighty battering it’s surprising they are both still standing. The extent of their hatred of each other is unprecedented and only matched by a willingness to expose the most sordid and embarrassing details of their opponent’s pasts. Their behaviour even has critics accusing them of demeaning the standing of the high office both covet. The election of the 45th President is now just over a week away, and the polls – which Trump says are rigged – suggest Hillary Clinton will become the first female leader of the United States. If that happens, it won’t just be momentous for America. It will be history-making for the entire free world.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Phil Goyen
DEATH IN A CAFÉ – GUILTY
Three weeks ago Ross Coulthart investigated the bizarre case of Jessica Wongso, the Australian resident accused of killing her best friend, Mirna Salihin, by poisoning her with cyanide in an upmarket café in Jakarta. The court case has intrigued the people of Indonesia for months, and last Thursday a panel of judges delivered their stunning verdict – guilty.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producers: Sean Power, Laura Sparkes
Seven’s Michelle Tapper will be joining 60 Minutes as a producer in January.
If she loved 60 Minutes so much she’d know that is the American version of the logo and title card.
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Sunday 6 November at 8.30 pm
A MATTER OF TRUST
One day four years ago something truly awful happened to two-and-a-half-year-old Darcy Atkinson. His mother left him in the care of someone she trusted without question – her then boyfriend, Adam Taylor. But within a few hours her precious Darcy was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. He died the next day. The New South Wales Coroner tried to find out the circumstances of Darcy’s death but was frustrated by Taylor’s evasiveness. The Coroner said he was an unimpressive witness who probably had more of a story to tell. For Darcy’s grief-stricken family who are still desperate for answers, Adam Taylor’s reluctance to provide more information means they may never find out what really happened to their little boy.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Laura Sparkes
WHISKY BUSINESS
When you think of whisky you think of Scotland – clean air, fresh water, fields of barley and smoky peat. For centuries it has been the heartland of whisky distilling. But no more. On the opposite side, and at the bottom end of the world, the Scots have a rival: Tasmania. In 25 years, the whisky business in the Apple Isle has gone from nothing to now producing the best single malt in the world. And as proud Tasmanian Charles Wooley discovered, that’s an achievement worth drinking to.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producers: Laura Sparkes, Ali Smith
LAW UNTO HIMSELF
Next Tuesday as America decides its new President, the people of Phoenix, Arizona will also be voting on whether to give notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio his eighth term in office. Down on the border with Mexico, the 84-year-old lawman is a hero to Donald Trump because of his zero tolerance policy towards illegal Latino immigrants. He arrests and then humiliates them by dressing them in pink underwear and parading them in chain gangs. His behaviour is so outrageous the US District Court is trying to jail him, but the Sheriff remains defiant.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Howard Sacre
Gable Tostee lands paid interview with 60 Minutes
GOLD Coast playboy Gable Tostee will receive a six-figure sum for a tell-all interview about his fatal encounter with Warriena Wright.
It is understood Channel 9 won a bidding war with its rival – Channel 7’s Sunday Night program – to secure the interview.
Police comment on Gable Tostee interview with 60 Minutes
Police are “disgusted” that Gable Tostee is doing the paid interview with 60 Minutes.
“It’s disgusting,’’ one senior detective told the The Courier-Mail.
“There’s a lot of anger among police about this. Of course we respect the court’s decision to find him not guilty but for him to now do a paid interview, after everything this poor girl’s family has been through, is horrific.
“It might be legally okay but for Tostee to profit from Warriena’s death is morally repugnant.’’
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Tara Brown blames media for stirring up criticism of botched Beirut kidnapping
TARA Brown has spoken for the first time outside of 60 Minutes in the wake of the Beirut fiasco, stating that the media was much more upset about events than TV viewers.
Brown’s defiant stance comes as Nine’s show braces for another storm with a paid Gable Tostee interview which will air this Sunday.
“A lot of that (criticism) has been generated by you (the media). I don’t necessarily think that matches what our audience says.”
Regular timeslots would help all shows across the board.
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Perhaps she is correct. 60 Minutes hasn’t exactly suffered in the ratings, comfortably beating Sunday Night.
Is that the only measuring stick? What about in comparison to the ratings highs of the past? The show has fallen a long way.
Sunday 13 November at 8.30 pm
GABLE TOSTEE: THE INTERVIEW
They both wanted uncomplicated, fast sex, and hooking up on the dating app Tinder was the perfect way to do it. But when Gable Tostee met Warriena Wright two years ago their night of passion ended in death. Neighbours heard a drunken argument, physical fighting and then a sickening scream as Warriena fell 14 floors from Tostee’s Gold Coast apartment balcony. That was horrific enough, but Tostee’s unusual behaviour, and his apparent disregard for Warriena in the seconds and minutes after she fell, has led to public condemnation of the then 28-year-old playboy. Instead of calling 000 he tried to call his lawyer. Then he left his apartment and wandered around Surfers Paradise before buying and eating a slice of pizza. For two years Tostee has maintained his silence. He refused to be interviewed by police or take the stand during his sensational trial. Last month a Queensland jury acquitted him of Warriena Wright’s murder after they heard an extraordinary piece of evidence: his own smartphone recording of what happened. Now Gable Tostee wants to speak publicly, and in an extraordinary interview with Liam Bartlett, tries to explain his version of events on that terrible night.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Grace Tobin, Nick Greenaway
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Jerry Seinfeld is without doubt the world’s most famous comedian. He’s made people laugh for almost 40 years and managed to turn a TV show about nothing into the most successful sitcom in entertainment history. The everyday antics of Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer became the stuff of comedy legend around the world. Who could forget the “Puffy Shirt”, the “Soup Nazi” or “The Contest”? In an industry where so few succeed, Seinfeld has managed to make a career and some pretty serious money. But as he tells Liz Hayes, it’s not as easy as it looks, and is in fact an exacting science which demands mountains of research and development. And that probably explains why Jerry Seinfeld is so good at it.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Phil Goyen
STING
How’s this for a cutting personality assessment: one of Sting’s own bandmates reckons the singer- songwriter is an egotist, a narcissist and a misanthrope! Ouch. Tara Brown, however, met quite a different 65-year-old rock star in New York. These days, despite being described as being “richer than God”, Sting is happiest at home living a simple life with his wife of 35 years and six children. Of course, on the music front, he’s still working hard and has no plans to retire. In fact he has just released another solo album, but as it races up the charts he’s getting a serious run for his money from an unlikely showbiz competitor – his own daughter.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Steven Burling
Once again Tara Brown blaming everything else except for her role in this fiasco.
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IMO, 60 Minutes should’ve been axed and Tara Brown should’ve resigned from the Nine Network after the Beirut kidnapping scandal.
That’s pretty concerning. If anything, Sunday Night (as much as I really think this program is not much better than 60 Minutes) should’ve been benefiting from the 60 Minutes scandal.
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