TV Flash
All episodes Season 48 S48E11 2015-12-06 120 min 1980s CBS

60 Minutes

Confidential Informants | Bonobos | The Spy Among Us

TV Flash files “Confidential Informants | Bonobos | The Spy Among Us” as hour 409 of 767 in the TV Flash guide — 60 Minutes (1968–present) on CBS, season 48, episode 11, aired 2015-12-06, 120 min.

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How this hour is filed

This leaf is S48E11: listed hour 409 of 767 in the 60 Minutes guide, hour 11 of 37 in season 48. It aired 2015-12-06 (120 min). The listed hour before it is “The Last Prisoner | The Execution of Joseph Wood | Taking on the Eiger” (S48E10). Next is “A New Direction on Drugs | The New Force Behind Star Wars | Lewis Hamilton” (S48E12). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

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Confidential Informants: Rachel Hoffman, 23, was caught by police with five ounces of marijuana and a few ecstasy and Valium pills. The authorities offered her a deal: they wouldn't charge her for a crime that could send her to jail, they said, if she helped law enforcement bring down some bigger dealers. With no undercover experience, she agreed to become a confidential informant. She was murdered in the course of a drug deal she did under law enforcement direction. Hoffman's story is part of a Lesley Stahl investigation into the controversial use of young, small-time drug dealers as untrained undercover informants in the war on drugs. Bonobos: In one of nature's bitter ironies, the most peaceful primate on Earth is being driven to extinction by human behavior. In Democratic Republic of Congo, the only place where bonobos are found, Anderson Cooper visits a preserve that cares for the abandoned young of these great apes, which are treated like human babies by the people who care for them. The Spy Among Us: Jack Barsky held a job at some of the top corporations in America and lived a seemingly normal life as a father and husband -- all while spying for the Soviet Union in the last days of the Cold War.

Viewer FAQ

Where does Confidential Informants | Bonobos | The Spy Among Us sit in the 60 Minutes guide?

S48E11 is listed hour 409 of 767 — hour 11 of 37 in season 48, season 48 episode 11.

When did 60 Minutes S48E11 air?

Confidential Informants | Bonobos | The Spy Among Us aired 2015-12-06 and is listed at 120 minutes.

Is 1980s 60 Minutes different from today's?

The grammar is the same: multi-segment hour, stopwatch motif, investigations plus profiles. In the 1980s it frequently outrated sitcoms — proof news could dominate prime time.

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Filed by Vivian Cross · The Carpet Report · Show package

The template of TV newsmagazine power — for the craft of the package and the history of broadcast investigation. Hewitt's stopwatch, Wallace's ambush, Safer and Bradley and Rooney's endnotes: Sunday night investigative theater that outrated sitcoms. Appointment news before the infinite scroll. Tick, tick, tick.

Tick, tick, tick — not a theme song, a weapon. CBS's 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt's stopwatch since 1968, was an 1980s Nielsen bully that outrated sitcoms on Sunday night: investigative pieces, profiles, commentator segments, correspondent star power. Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Harry Reasoner, Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer, Andy Rooney's endnotes. **Ambush interviews and gotcha lore made Wallace a fearsome brand.** The museum guard wants the package as civic virtue. The flash is the ambush. Appointment news before the…

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