The New York Times obituary says Hewitt "changed the course of broadcast news by creating the television magazine '60 Minutes,' fusing journalism and show business as never before, and who then presided over the much-copied program for nearly four decades." Hewitt worked with Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite and "presided over CBS’s coverage of such watershed moments as the presidential debate between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960; the assassination of Mr. Kennedy in 1963; and the NASA space missions of the late 1960’s." He died of cancer in New York state.

When Hewitt met Jon Stewart