60 Minutes: Sept 2

Tonight on 60 Minutes, the risks of excessive gaming and how a scene filmed for Curb Your Enthusiasm became one man’s alibi and saved him from death row (doco Long Shot is now on Netflix).

Won’t Stop, Can’t Stop
While you’re watching 60 Minutes, chances are children all over the country will be glued to different screens, playing video games. The amount of time they spend on their gaming consoles is an increasing worry for parents, but on the upside, at least it keeps them quiet, right? The game that currently stands out in the popularity stakes, especially with boys, is Fortnite. For the creators it’s an enormous business success, boasting 125 million regular players around the world. But as Tara Brown reports, therein lies the problem. It, and games like it, are so good, and provide such a sensory smorgasbord of action and colour, that children are becoming dangerously addicted. They’re playing for days on end, to the exclusion of everything else in their lives, including school, friends and family. Try to stop them and parents are guaranteed a meltdown. The World Health Organisation is now so concerned about the serious health implications of excessive gaming by young people that it classifies video gaming disorder as a disease.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Alice Dalley

Out of Left Field
What Juan Catalan endured at the hands of the Los Angeles police is no laughing matter, but it’s comedy that saved him. It all started when LAPD detectives accused Juan of a cold-blooded murder he didn’t commit, that resulted with Juan being put on death row. It was an extraordinary denial of justice, but the police were convinced Juan was the killer. In their minds there was no doubt or presumption of innocence. In court, it was up to the suspect to show he did not commit the crime, which meant Juan Catalan had to prove his alibi: that he was one of 58,000 spectators at a major league baseball game on the night of the murder. His legal team set out on the near impossible task of finding a needle in a haystack, and just when it looked like all hope was lost, out of left field appeared his unlikely saviour – the famous Hollywood funnyman who created Seinfeld.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Stefanie Sgroi