Stephen Colbert was fired by CBS. It was obviously a financial decision as he was losing 10s of millions of dollars every year.

Colbert and Jon Stewart threw a series of unfunny tantrums and profanity-laden bits, insisting that the one-sided nature of his show was not the problem; the problem was that corporate America loves President Donald Trump too much.

This is, of course, not true.

If they took all the anti-Trump people off the air, there would be no one left on TV.

Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN.

The SEC has not felt the same in the year since the deal with CBS has expired and fans across the South have had to watch their schools play on the ESPN family of networks.

One of the more iconic pieces of what made that broadcast so special for so many years was the chemistry between the commentators, both play-by-play men Verne Lundquist and after his retirement Brad Nessler along with color analyst Gary Danielson.

Even with the network no longer broadcasting SEC games, the pair of Nessler and Danielson has been calling Big-10 games for the past year and this upcoming season.

Danielson however has announced that the upcoming season will be his last as he prepares to retire.

NEWS: CBS Sports’ Gary Danielson will retire following the 2025 football season🐐

Charles Davis will succeed Danielson in 2026.https://t.co/lR7SOlEQDF pic.twitter.com/IWlMVQG8Nl

— On3 (@On3sports) March 26, 2025

“I have had the greatest seat in the house for 36 years and have loved every minute of it,” Danielson said in a release confirming the news.

“I have discussed the timing of this moment with CBS Sports leadership over the past few years and we felt it was important I remained with the team during our transition to the Big Ten. As we enter our second full season of Big Ten football and my 20th at CBS Sports, the timing just feels right. I have so much respect for Charles Davis as both a person and an analyst. He is going to shine in this role and fit so well with this team. I have been blessed to work with incredible teammates throughout my career and I look forward to one more memorable season with Brad, Jenny, Craig Silver, Steve Milton and the crew.”

Danielson has always been a polarizing figure among fans in the SEC, with virtually all of them convinced that he dislikes their school for whatever reason.

Now that he is no longer calling SEC games however and soon to be no longer calling college football games at all, most of those same fans will look back fondly on all the memories associated with both him and the SEC on CBS.

New polling by CBS News shows that nearly three quarters of American voters are not confident in President Joe Biden’s ability to lead, including a significant portion within his Democratic own party.

The dramatic shift follows a calamitous first debate that many believe displayed the aging President’s deteriorating cognitive abilities. Fallout from the event was so swift and severe that almost half of Democrats polled now also feel that Biden should not be the nominee.

https://x.com/CBSMornings/status/1807742334542447004

The poll indicates specifically that prior to the debate, 35% of registered voters said that Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president for a second term, while 65% said he does not. Post debate, now just 27% say he possesses the cognitive abilities to lead, while 72% say he does not.

RELATED: Biden’s debate debacle makes bad situation for Democrats much worse

When compared to his opponent former President Donald Trump in the same category, Biden garnered 27% of support from voters while Trump received 50%.  After last week’s debate, 72% of voters said Biden does not have the abilities necessary to lead. 49% said that Trump was incapable.

The same poll also revealed many of the top concerns regarding a second term for Biden. First off, was his age coming in at 86%. His decision making in office was number two with 71%. His record as President was 66%. Lastly, his ability to campaign effectively registered at 59%.

Most alarming for Biden, is the dramatic change in his own party’s support after the debate. Before the event just 36% of Democrats said he shouldn’t run, post debate that number has now spiked to 46%.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten

For a printable version, click here. Pro tip: Save the image below to your phone for quick and easy access all weekend.

(Note: All times are Central)

Ben Richardson is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News

Zack Shaw is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News and former walk-on for the Auburn Tigers. You can contact him by email: zack@yellowhammernews.com or on Twitter @z_m_shaw

Alabama will face a “dangerous” Arkansas team Saturday in its first SEC road matchup, according to head coach Nick Saban.

The Crimson Tide is entering week five undefeated, while Arkansas comes in at 3-1, losing last Saturday to Texas A&M.

The Sam Pittman-coached Razorbacks dropped from No. 10 to No. 20 in the weekly AP Top 25 College Football Poll after a thrilling 23-21 defeat in the Southwest Classic showdown.

During his weekly Monday press conference, Saban began his opening remarks by saying his No. 2 ranked squad displayed more consistency last week against Vanderbilt than in previous games.

“We had a good start in the SEC. I think we played better in the last game,” said Saban. “Paid better attention to detail. Had more success when we did. And when we didn’t, we probably didn’t have as much success, but we were very consistent for the most part in how we executed offensively, defensively and on special teams. Still things that we need to improve on. We need to show that we can sort of build on this and show progress as a team, individually and collectively.”

The Alabama coach warned of the dangers associated with facing a team coming off a “tough loss” the week prior.

“This is a very dangerous team we’re playing in Arkansas. They have a very, very good team. Coming off a tough loss. They make a lot of explosive plays,” he said. “KJ Jefferson is, dual threat-wise big, strong, really good passer. They’ve got a lot of quarterback runs, which create another gap on defense. And to go with that, they have great play-action passes. They make a lot of explosive plays. Sam’s done a great job there, to me. They play with toughness. They run the ball effectively, stop the run on defense.”

Playing a “very good” SEC West Division team in Arkansas will require the Tide’s best preparation headed into Saturday, according to Saban.

“I mean, their guys play hard. They’ve got a real culture there that shows great intangibles. Their defense is good,” he said. “So this is a really, really good all-around team. And it’s going to take great preparation on our part to go on the road and be able to play the way we need to play against a very good SEC team.”

Regarding his team’s offensive identity, Saban touched on the need to better utilize skill players and make “explosive plays.”

“I think you build an identity over a season. And we’re going to continue to try to do that so that we have balance and we feature the players that we have on our team so that they have the best opportunities to be successful,” he said. “I think there’s been times that we’ve done that extremely well. There’s times that we haven’t. We made a lot of explosive plays in the last game, which we want to continue to be able to do, utilize the skill players that we have and run the ball effectively when we need to.”

“We’re still building on that identity but I think the players are making really good progress.”

Alabama and Arkansas will face off at 2:30 p.m. on CBS at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

The Southeastern Conference’s biggest football games, including the SEC Championship and — in most years — the Iron Bowl, will be on a new channel in a few short years.

Industry website SportsBusinessDaily (SBD) officially confirmed on Thursday that Disney reached an agreement with college football’s premier conference to purchase the package of premium afternoon games that have aired on CBS since 1996.

Disney, which owns both ESPN and ABC, will pay the SEC over $300 million every year for the rights, for a total of more than $3 billion over the 10-year life of the contract.

CBS had been paying $55 million per year under a deal struck in 2008.
(more…)

The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced the scheduled time and viewing information for the 2020 Iron Bowl.

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers are set to play the annual game at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, November 28.

The contest will be televised as the SEC Game of the Week on CBS. (more…)

CBS on Tuesday morning announced six of the SEC games that will be featured on its network for the 2020 college football season.

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide will feature in three of those six contests, while the Auburn Tigers will play in one matchup.

The SEC is set to play a 10-game, conference-only schedule this year. The games announced by CBS on Tuesday all come in the first eight weeks of regular season play. (more…)

On Sunday, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham), explained how a whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing by President Donald Trump during a phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky would serve as a “road map” for an impeachment inquiry.

According to Sewell, who is also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the interpretation of the dialogue on the call that the president pressured Zelensky to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden crossed a “rubicon.”

“Look, it’s not because I didn’t think that there were really unpresidential behavior by this president from moment one, but because I was worried that it would get us sidetracked from other more important items for the American people,” she said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “But I do believe that we’ve crossed a Rubicon here. I do believe that this whistleblower allegation is so serious it gets to the very heart of our nation’s democracy, the integrity of our elections. And if any district understands that, it’s my district — Alabama seventh congressional district, which was the civil rights district where people died, fought, bled for the right to vote and the integrity of our elections are at question. When the president of the United States asks a foreign leader for a favor and then withholds millions of dollars of foreign aid in order to solicit interference in our election, I don’t think it gets more important than that.”

(more…)

The SEC championship thriller between Alabama and Georgia on CBS drew the highest television rating for regular-season college football game in seven years.

CBS announced Sunday the game drew a 10.52 rating, an increase of 25 percent over last year’s SEC title game between Auburn and Georgia and the best rating for any non-bowl game since LSU and Alabama played a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in November 2011. That Game of the Century got an 11.9 rating on CBS. (more…)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — For the fifteenth straight year, Birmingham was the number one local market for college football games aired on ESPN’s family of networks. Combining for games aired on ESPN and ABC, Nielsen assigned the magic city a 7.4 rating, good for the top spot on the list.

The Alabama Crimson Tide (13-0, 9-0 SEC) had three of the top nine most viewed games of the year, each of which were aired on CBS. Bama’s 54-16 beat-down of the Florida Gators (8-4, 6-3 SEC) earned the number two ranking, with over 11 million viewers. The match-ups against the LSU Tigers (7-4, 5-3 SEC) and the Texas A&M Aggies (8-4, 4-4 SEC) came in a numbers four and eight respectively.

The Tide will have another opportunity to score big ratings for ESPN in the Peach Bowl against the Washington Huskies (12-1, 9-1 PAC 12) as a part of the College Football Playoff. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. CT on New Year’s Eve, and the game will air on ESPN.

Auburn (8-4, 5-3 SEC) will also compete in one of the prized New Year’s Six games and is set to face the Oklahoma Sooners (10-2, 9-0 Big XII) in the Sugar Bowl. The Tigers will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. CT on Jan. 2, and the game will air on ESPN.

During Birmingham’s 15-year run as the top market, the Tide and Tigers have had remarkable success. Since Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, UA has won the SEC Championship 5 times, appeared in the playoff three times, and won the National Championship four times. In the past decade and a half, AU has won the SEC three times and the National Championship once. Auburn also had a second place finish in 2013, with another undefeated season in 2004.

By Wayne Hester

Verne Lundquist will be four days shy of 53 years in broadcasting on Sept. 3 when CBS televises the UCLA at Texas A&M game.

“Verne is a legend in this business,” said his partner Gary Danielson. “I am thankful to have had the opportunity to sit next to him calling SEC games.”

CBS has had the highest ratings for college football for the past 10 years, and Lundquist plans to make his last year all about the game.

“Verne has never wanted to be the story of any broadcast,” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “He has always wanted the game, the players and the coaches to be the story.”

Lundquist, Danielson, McManus and studio host Rick Neuheisel were on a conference call with the media Thursday as CBS approaches its 16th year of covering the SEC.

Lundquist remembered the year 2000, when coach Mike Dubose’s Alabama team finished 3-8.

“We’re light years removed from that Alabama team,” Lundquist said.

“When they got Nick Saban, the world changed.”

McManus let the media in on a change coming to CBS broadcasts this season. He said viewers should be prepared for graphics having a “slick new modern look.”

And Garth Brooks “is going to customize a song for us,” McManus added.

Danielson was asked about Lundquist, and he answered with high praise.

“I think he has been as important to the SEC as Bear Bryant,” Danielson said.

“Verne always finds the goodness in the game with the players and coaches he interviews.”

Other takeaways from the conference call:

• Lundquist on preparing for a game: “You can’t shortcut it. If you do, you’ll be found out.”

• Danielson: “I’ve had what I consider four, five, six dear friends in my life. People come up in the booth and hug Verne and call him their dear friend – hundreds of them.”

• Verne on his successor, Brad Nessler: “I’ve known Brad for more than 30 years and have always admired his work ethic and his on-air presence. He shares the same passion for college football that I do.”

• Neuheisel’s four picks for the College Football Playoff: Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Clemson.

U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) had a background name drop in the first episode of CBS’s new summer political/sci-fi drama, “BrainDead.”

In the final minutes of the first episode, a closed door can be seen in the background with a name card for “Senator Richard Shelby – Alabama” on the wall. Shelby is never mentioned by name or appears on screen, but the appearance of his name helps ground the show in a pseudo-reality.

“BrainDead” is almost purely satire, but it puts real politics and politicians in the foreground as much as possible. The premier featured a number of television and audio clips from Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. The main characters on the show are completely fictional, but the audience is supposed to believe that they exist alongside real politicians like Senator Shelby.

The new series from Robert and Michelle King (creators of “The Good Wife”) stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), Danny Pino (“Scandal,” “Law & Order: SVU”), Aaron Tveit (“Graceland,” “Grease: Live!”), and Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”).

BrainDead brings a different spin to the growing genre of television political dramas. The catalyst for the show’s central plot is a meteor that crashed down to the earth that released thousands of ant-like extraterrestrials that crawled straight into the brains of congressmen and other D.C. elites. The creatures alter their hosts’ brains and personalities, turning them into hyper-focused, robotic politicians. The remaining characters have to figure out what’s going on.

The balance between the science fiction aspect and real politics is designed to make viewers feel strangely uncomfortable. The central plot of the first episode involves a government shutdown after Republicans and Democrats fail to reach a compromise. Sound familiar? At the same time, the fantastic elements allow viewers to distance themselves from reality.

“I think it’s a bit of escapism. Anything that’s kind of heightened or larger than life can be a way to kind of look at what’s actually happening and laugh at it,” Tveit said in an interview with E! News. “And just separate yourself from it. That’s what’s great about these summer series, to just go on this little ride and see how it goes. With this, the reality is so kind of tough and depressing that if you can find anyway to laugh at it is good, so hopefully people can use this to laugh at it.”

The show is neither pro-Republican nor pro-Democrat, but in the current state of real politics, BrainDead hopes to give viewers a way to release the tension they may be feeling.

Who knows; maybe some other Alabama politicians will make appearances as the show unfolds.

By Alec Harvey

When the producers of “The Amazing Race” first approached Cole LaBrant (@TheSuperCole on both Twitter and Instagram) about competing on “The Amazing Race,” he had no idea who his partner might be.

They found Cole, a freshman at Troy University, through his 6.5 million followers (and astounding 3 billion loops) on the website Vine, which features six-second videos. And they interviewed him with his younger brother. Then they interviewed him with his older brother. And, finally, they interviewed him with his parents.

The winning combination? Cole and his mother, Sheri, who lives with the bulk of the LaBrant crew in Enterprise. They’ll join 10 other teams with some sort of connection to social media when the 28th season of the around-the-world competition kicks off on CBS on Feb. 12.

“We are still speaking, and we still like each other,” Sheri says during a conference call with Cole.

That’s about all the team can say about the season. They’ve already filmed it and know who wins the $1 million prize, but they can’t say.

What they can talk about is Cole’s amazing social media success – he’s known for asking Selena Gomez to his prom last year — and their trek to the CBS reality show.

In press materials, CBS describes the 19-year-old as a “Vine heartthrob,” and while he won’t describe himself that way, Cole is surprised that his Vine videos have taken off.

“I started it with my friends just goofing around two or three summers ago, and it blew up pretty big,” Cole says. “As the years went by, two of the guys lost interest, and I hung on to it. I would say what I do on Vine now is weird, funny humor. It’s all family-friendly, no cursing or anything. I’m a Christian and have grown up in a Christian home.”

His mom agrees.

“He actually really is a good kid,” she says. “To be honest, I thought it was funny that out of all my boys he was starting to get Vine famous because he danced around with his shirt off. He’s actually my really strait-laced son. I thought that was ironic that that’s what launched this, him shirtless and dancing around.”

Another thing that surprises Sheri is that she was the one chosen to compete with Cole on “The Amazing Race.”

“I thought they’d probably choose one of the guys, because they’d be such a strong team,” she says. “When they said me, I said, ‘Are you sure about that?’ I think the producers were like, ‘Ha, ha, ha, this’ll be fun to watch.’”

The LaBrants knew of “The Amazing Race” – distant cousins competed in an early season – but they weren’t fans.

“We don’t watch much TV at all,” Cole says.

So, when word came that they’d be filming the show in September and October, Cole concentrated on his first semester of college (on scholarship), and Sheri immersed herself in everything “Amazing Race.” She binge-watched many seasons of the show and filled out the immense amount of paperwork required for the teams.

“I told him to focus on school, and I would take care of everything,” she says.

Along the way, Sheri became a fan of one team in the 21st season.

“The Chippendale guys,” she says with a laugh. “They did their best, and they seemed super nice. I know they’re good looking, but their insides looked like they were good, too.”

Both LaBrants confessed to a fear of heights going into “The Amazing Race,” and the producers capitalized on that, Cole says.

“I think because I was so preoccupied with school and friends and my first semester, I just didn’t give it much thought, but once it came down to it, it was as terrifying as you’d imagine it being,” Cole says. “It’s definitely going to be funny and emotional and entertaining on the show.”

The LaBrants haven’t decided if they’ll attend the official premiere party for “The Amazing Race” in Los Angeles. But it will be either that, or getting together with family and friends.

“I have a group of high school friends who want to get together to watch it,” says Sheri, who is originally from Stone Mountain, Ga. “If we don’t watch the premiere, we’ll watch other episodes as the season goes on.”

ENTERPRISE, Ala. — CBS announced Thursday that this season’s The Amazing Race cast will be made up entirely of social media stars, with one star being Alabama’s own Cole LaBrant.

Cole LaBrant’s social media fame began when he and his friends started the Vine account “Dem White Boyz” which primarily featured 6-second videos of the boys dancing. However, LaBrant has since started his own Cole LaBrant Vine account, with over 6.5 million followers.

LaBrant, now 19, also gained some serious media attention earlier this year when asking singer Selena Gomez to be his date for Enterprise High School’s prom. The video received national attention and over 1 million views. However, unfortunately for LaBrant, it did not garner a response from Selena.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoF0A4D-lo0#action=share

Now, LaBrant is part of 10 pairs of contestants competing on season 28 of The Amazing Race, a show where contestants face challenges at various destinations, with each team having to complete a series of tasks to learn of their next location. LaBrant will be competing on the show with his mom, Sheri.

The contestants will kick off their race on Sunday, and host Phil Keoghan will be live-streaming the event on his Facebook page.

For more information about the new season of The Amazing Race, click here.

https://twitter.com/caseycappa/status/634418932192030720

While Tuesday night’s inaugural episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which now airs on CBS weeknights at 10:35/11:35c, was memorable night for fans of comedian and political jokester Stephen Colbert, Alabamians may have recognized a couple of familiar faces jamming on stage during the epic musical performance ending.

That’s right, the surprise all-star musical lineup, which was fronted by Mavis Staples, included Alabamians Paul Janeway, lead vocalist for St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and Brittany Howard, lead singer and guitarist for Alabama Shakes. The two joined Colbert’s house band to cover Sly and the Family Stone’s 1968 hit “Everyday People”.

The surprise lineup also included Buddy Guy, Ben Folds, Derek and Susan Tedeschi.

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” replaces long running “The Late Show With David Letterman” which aired on August 30, 1993 coming to a conclusion in May of this year.

GOP Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush and actor George Clooney were Colbert’s first guests, a format spectrum that may hint to what kind of show Colbert wants to bring to the network talk show genre.

Both Janeway and Howard, with their explosive bands, are turning heads toward the Yellowhammer State and its rich musical history in rock n’ roll, soul, rhythm and blues.

The full episode of Tuesday night’s debut can be watched on CBS.com here.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about this story on Twitter.

— John James (@john_james_20) August 19, 2015

Not content with just setting multiple records on the field during Saturday’s Iron Bowl slugfest, Alabama and Auburn shattered several all-time marks off the field, as well.

ESPN’s first broadcast of the game in seven years averaged 13,529,000 viewers and posted a 7.4 rating, which is ESPN’s most-watched and highest-rated regular season college football game ever, per ESPN PR Mike Humes. That viewership number makes the 2014 Iron Bowl the most-watched game of the season on any network.

The shootout that ensued in Alabama’s 55-44 win over Auburn Saturday was great drama – helped along by the voice of Brent Musberger – and held viewers and the in-stadium crowd in rapt attention for the entire game.

In Birmingham, the Iron Bowl garnered a 51.8 rating, which is a massive average for a single market, and is the highest ever single-market rating in ESPN history. Birmingham regularly wins the highest rated market in college football, and will be at the top again this season.

Last season’s game had a staggering 57.3 rating in Birmingham with an 82 percent share, which means 82 percent of metered televisions in the Birmingham area were all tuned to that game.

This year’s contest didn’t achieve the truly massive numbers of last season’s Kick-Six game, which posted an 8.6 overnight, but that was on network television (CBS), not cable.

ESPN also set a record for online viewing with 475,000 total viewers and 119,000 average audience per minute on WatchESPN, the company’s over-the-top online streaming service. That, too, is a regular-season record.

ESPN didn’t know it would have the Iron Bowl this season until a few weeks beforehand. CBS can only broadcast a certain allotment of games from a single school and chose to use its final game with Alabama for the Alabama-Mississippi State game, which posted a 6.6 overnight rating.

With Auburn’s season having taken a turn for the worse, it was unclear whether this year’s Iron Bowl would have the same impact as it did last year. It ultimately wasn’t as highly rated, but we learned that regardless of either team’s record, Alabama vs. Auburn is good for business.

(ABOVE: Dean Young discusses running for Congress again with WKRG)

Ali and Frazier had the Thrilla in Manila. Ali and Forman had the Rumble in the Jungle. Now it looks like South Alabama might get be getting The Brawl by the Bay, a rematch between Republican rivals Bradley Byrne and Dean Young.

Byrne dispatched of Young a month ago in the Republican primary runoff in Alabama’s first congressional district. Since then he has moved on to face Democrat Burton LeFlore in the general election, which is set to take place Dec. 17.

But Young did not go quietly into the night. He refused to concede and decided not to support his fellow Republican in defeat.

“I cannot bring myself to vote for someone who would mislead the people of south Alabama and the nation like Bradley Byrne has,” Young said after the results had come in. “And he should be ashamed of what he’s done. He should be. And therefore, you know — you reap what you sow and that will follow him — what he’s done and how he mischaracterized who I am and who I’m about. That will follow him.”

Mobile CBS affiliate WKRG aired a feature on Young on Thursday night, and it was apparent that his feelings had not changed much since election night.

“I don’t regret saying that,” Young quipped. “I do believe Bradley mislead the people — which is lying to the people of south Alabama and to the nation. If you’ve got to win by doing that, you don’t need to win… I’m making my decision as to whether to run against Bradley Byrne here in the next month or two. It’s not over, I can tell you that. I’ve had big donors come and say, ‘Listen, we don’t like the way that turned out. We don’t like how those Democrat votes came in here. We don’t like that you were outspent ten-to-one by the establishment and we’ll put money behind you.'”

Young quickly uploaded the WKRG segment to his YouTube page and shared it with numerous groups on Facebook, including the Baldwin County Young Republicans, Friends of Roy Moore, Alabama Citizens for Life, Azalea City Republican Women and the Alabama Patriots Tea Party.

With Alabama’s first congressional district being one of the most solidly Republican districts in the country, Byrne should easily defeat LeFlore in the upcoming general election. But from the sound of it, he might be right back on the campaign trail shortly thereafter.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

(Above: 60 Minutes gets a behind-the-scenes look at Amazon.com and its CEO Jeff Bezos)

“Amazon prides itself on disrupting the traditional way of doing things,” 60 Minutes correspondent Charlie Rose said to open the show Sunday evening.

Rose and the 60 Minutes crew then spent the next 14 minutes showing just how disruptive Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his team are, and just how much more disruptive they plan to be in the future.

Handle over 300 orders per second? No problem. Go from hand-delivering orders to being worth $25 billion? You bet. Become indispensable to the world’s most legendary covert intelligence agency? Of course. Deliver just about any product a person could want in under 30 minutes by an unmanned flying drone? Why not?

Over the last month, 60 Minutes was given unprecedented inside access to Amazon’s business — from their distribution centers and current operations to their research and development wing and future aspirations.

Here are 6 things we learned:

1. Amazon’s sales volume is absurd

More than 300 items per second will be ordered on Amazon.com today, which is known as Cyber Monday, the Internet’s answer to Black Friday.

2. Bezos is worth a ton of money, but he’s prioritizing longterm value over short term profits

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has come a long way since he founded the company in 1995 as an online book seller. At the time, Bezos would deliver packages himself. Today, he’s worth an estimated $25 billion.

However, although Bezos is worth a lot of money on paper and Amazon is one of Wall Street’s most beloved stocks, the company does not actually clear that much money. Rather than pocketing a massive profit, Amazon invests the vast majority of the money it makes back into the business.

“In the long run, if you take care of customers, that is taking care of investors,” Bezos said when pressed on why he doesn’t concentrate on profits. He also said that he won’t raise prices even when market analysts tell him to because it “erodes trust.”

3. Amazon wants to take over the world

“Anything you want on Earth, you’re going to get from us,” an Amazon vice president told Charlie Rose. And they mean it.

All that money Amazon is putting back into their business is going toward building distribution centers all over the world in an effort to achieve their goal of same-day delivery. Being able to deliver on the same day an order is placed will allow Amazon to expand their selection of products. They’ve even started delivering groceries in select cities. Amazon now uses more trucks than planes because they’ve built so many distribution facilities.

“I would define Amazon by our big ideas,” Bezos explained, “which are: customer centricity — putting the customer at the center of everything we do — [and] invention — we like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side.”

4. Wait… they actually might take over the world

You’ve probably never heard of what will soon be Amazon’s most profitable product, but you use it every day — or at least your favorite companies do.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the technology that Amazon initially created to run their business. Today, hundreds of thousands of tech companies depend on AWS to deliver their products and services to the masses.

“Most internet startups and a lot of big internet companies run on top of AWS,” Bezos explained.

One of the companies that use AWS is Netflix, which accounts for over one-third of North America’s Internet traffic just about every night when families sit down in front of their televisions.

Even the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) relies on Amazon Web Services. Bezos says Amazon built a “private cloud” for the CIA to operate on, keeping their data safe from the “public web.”

5. Amazon might be the company that kills cable television as we know it

“The internet is disrupting every media industry,” Bezos said matter-of-factly. “People can complain about that, but complaining is not a strategy.”

Bezos recently purchased The Washington Post and its unclear at this point what he plans to do with it, but television is the latest media industry Amazon is disrupting.

Amazon recently kicked off the first of two original series its offering to Amazon Prime members. Amazon Studios is the production company that created the shows, but their process for selecting them was much different than the process being used by old-school television studios.

“Instead of a few studio executives deciding what [shows get] green-lighted, we’re using what some people would call crowd-sourcing to help figure that out,” Bezos said. In short, they allowed their massive customer base to tell them what shows they were interested in seeing go into full production.

“Are you working on a set top box that would allow people to watch streaming video and not need to have cable television,” Charlie Rose asked.

“I can’t answer that question,” Bezos responded coyly. “I don’t want to talk about the future roadmap of our devices. So I’ll just have to ask you to stay tuned.”

6. Amazon drones will one day deliver products to your house within 30 minutes

I initially wrote this off as an internet hoax. An unmanned, rotary winged flying drone delivering Amazon products to my doorstep? C’mon.

But it’s real.

“These are Octocopters,” Bezos said, introducing Rose to Amazon’s latest R&D project. “These are effectively drones, but there’s no reason they can’t be used as delivery vehicles… I know this looks like science fiction, but it’s not… We can do half-hour delivery and we can carry objects up to five pounds, which covers 86 percent of the items we deliver… These are autonomous. You give them instructions of what GPS coordinates to go to and they take off and fly to those GPS coordinates. The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say ‘look, this thing can’t land on somebody’s head while they’re walking around their neighborhood.'”

Bezos said 2015 is the earliest that the FAA could give approval to such flying vehicles, but he’s thinking it will take four or five years to actually put the drones into use.

Here’s the video Bezos showed to Rose while explaining the concept:

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USA Today Sports has named the fanbases of both Alabama and Auburn among the “most beloved” in all of college football.

So, what exactly does “most beloved” mean?

“[T]he true test of loyalty is how deep the fandom goes,” Paul Myerberg of USA today wrote. “This is what separates good fan bases from the country’s best. Yes, some fan bases are better than others, [but these] five stand above all the rest.”

Oklahoma, LSU, Nebraska and Texas A&M make up fanbases 2-5, but Crimson Tide fans are in a class by themselves, according to USA Today.

Here’s their explanation:

Yes, Crimson Tide fans walk a thin line between “great” and “wow, these guys are terrible.” (It’s a pretty thin line.) But there’s something to be said for the tried-and-true, dyed-in-the-wool nature of the fan base: Alabama loyalty is passed down from generation to generation, hidden somewhere in the genetic code, and it seems as if each generation gets a little more loyal than the last. If that’s possible. Every SEC fan base is terrific, true. Alabama’s just seems a little better than the rest – if only by a nose. Negative points for poisoning the trees at Auburn’s Toomer’s Corner.

Auburn was listed in USA Today’s “honorable mention” category, placing them somewhere in the top 11 if the rankings had been listed out that far. Other honorable mention schools included Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Kansas State, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Over half of the 11 schools recognized for having the best fanbases are members of the Southeastern Conference.

Alabama and Auburn fans will be watching closely this weekend as their teams square off in one of the most anticipated Iron Bowls in recent history. The winner will win the right to represent the SEC West division in the conference championship game.

The Iron Bowl is set to air at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday on CBS.

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(Above: A local CBS affiliate’s report on the shocking new game that’s catching on among teens)

A new “game” known simply as “knockout” is growing in popularity among teenage boys in the northeastern United States.

The game consists of choosing a random, defenseless person on the street and attempting to knock them out in one punch. The ultimate victory in the game? A “one-hitter-quitter,” a punch that leaves the unsuspecting victim instantly knocked out cold.

New York City’s local CBS affiliate recently took to the streets of New Jersey to conduct an investigative report on the growing number of inner-city teens participating in the violent game.

“You try to hit with one swing and completely knock them out,” one of the teens told the CBS reporter. “Knockout is, like, when you just punch somebody and they just go to sleep when you hit them,” another teen chimed in.

One such attack caught on tape by a surveillance camera showed a 50-year-old teacher named James Addlespurger casually walking by a group of teenage boys when one of them suddenly punches him in the head, leaving him motionless on the pavement. The boys walk away laughing.

“What’s the point,” the CBS reporter asked a teen on the street. “Like, for the fun of it. Like, for little kids to run around, hit people and knock them out,” the teen replied. “It’s just more like picking a target that’s alone, defenseless. They just go ‘boom’ when it’s the right time, right place.”

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(Above: 60 Minutes profiles the Bama football program and head coach Nick Saban)

For the last eight months, University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban gave CBS’ 60 Minutes full access to his entire program.

On Sunday evening, CBS aired the first half of a two-part series focusing on The Crimson Tide, starting with a visit to Crimson Tide practice

“Why are you so tough on people?” 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian asked Saban after watching him relentlessly demand perfection from his players.

“I don’t know if that’s fair, that I’m really tough on people,” the Tide coach replied calmly. “We create a standard for how we want to do things, and everybody’s got to buy into that standard… Mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t like mediocre people.”

The means through which Saban and his teams pursue perfection is a system known simply as “The Process.” Rather than worrying about winning, Saban encourages his guys to focus on doing their job at the highest level every single play — in practice, and ultimately during the games.

“The approach was to challenge the players to play every play in the game like it had a history and a life of its own,” Saban explained. “[We] tried to take the other team out of the game and make it all about us… It really is the simple way to do it. It’s the best way to do it.”

The play that epitomized “The Process,” according 60 Minutes, took place late in last year’s National Championship game.

The Crimson Tide were up big with just over 7 minutes to go against an outmatched Notre Dame squad. Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron and center Barrett Jones called different plays at the line of scrimmage. Both insisted they were right. After arguing over the play, McCarron called a timeout in frustration and berated Jones, who responded by shoving McCarron in front of millions of people on live television.

Saban loved it.

“The game’s probably won… and they’re still trying to get it right,” he said, “which to me is the kind of pride in performance that you want in the players.”

The CBS crew dug into Saban’s past to try to gain a better understanding of what in Saban’s upbringing led to his seemingly maniacal pursuit of perfection.

Saban’s dad, Nick, Sr., is a local Pee Wee football coaching legend in their West Virginia coal mining town. Saban started working at his dad’s service station when he was only 11 years old.

“If we washed a car… and it was not done exactly, perfectly correctly, he would say ‘wash it again,'” Saban recalled. “A single streak and you had to do the whole care again.” He says now that his desire for perfection started at that service station.

Years later, after working as a graduate assistant for Kent State University’s football program, Saban decided that coaching was the profession for him. In what would be the last conversation he ever had with his father, Saban told him the news.

“I think [coaching football] is what I really want to do,” Saban recalled telling his dad. “That was the last conversation we had.”

Nick, Sr. passed away just days late at the age of 46.

After bouncing around from college to college, never staying longer than a few years, Saban won his first national championship at LSU. He then hightailed it to the NFL, taking a job as the Miami Dolphin’s head coach.

But after a couple of lackluster seasons, Alabama came calling.

Saban initially denied any interest in the job. At one press conference, an exasperated Saban explicitly said he would not be Bama’s next head coach.

He took the job shortly thereafter.

Asked by the 60 Minutes correspondent if he regrets those words now, Saban said, “Absolutely… It affected my integrity as a person by saying one thing and doing something else.”

The criticism he received over taking the Alabama job ended up being nothing more than a blip on the radar, though, especially now as the Tide pursues its third consecutive national championship. But there are still some who question whether any coach is worth what the University of Alabama pays Saban — over $5 million per year, more than any other college coach in the country.

University of Alabama system Chancellor Dr. Robert Witt, who approved Saban’s giant contract, says it has proven to be one of the smartest decisions he’s ever made.

“Nick Saban is the best financial investment this university’s ever made,” Witt said confidently.

When 60 Minutes ran the numbers, they found plenty of data to back up that claim. Saban has overseen a 112 percent increase in revenue for the athletic department, $4 million of which was returned to the university in the form of academic scholarships last year alone.

But Saban’s pursuit of perfection has not consumed him to the point that he’s blind to the world around him. Even a little bit of pop culture seems to have infiltrated “The Process.”

After a big win against Texas A&M earlier this year, Saban praised his team in the locker room with a familiar phrase from A&E’s hit reality show Duck Dynasty.

“I’m so happy, happy, happy,” Saban exclaimed. “…I’m so proud.”

The second part of the 60 Minutes profile is set to air Wednesday on Showtime.

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In an interview with Mobile CBS affiliate WKRG that aired Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, reacted to the controversy surrounding the National Security Agency (NSA) with the allegations even low-level bureaucrats within the organization have the ability to search the private emails and phone calls of Americans.

Sessions told WKRG that it was only a “small group of people” with access to that data. However, he said if it wasn’t on the up-and-up, the program should be discontinued.

“My observation of the time I’ve been out and met there was that a small group of people have access to the information and they are focused totally on terrorists and their ability to identify people who are a threat to the United States,” Sessions said. “It’s a classified program and so I’m interested in seeing what the complaints are, going through once again the constitutional and legal challenges that people making to it to make sure it it’s done right or stopped. If it can’t be done constitutionally then we don’t need to be doing it.”

Last week, the House rejected a measure that would have repealed the NSA’s authority to monitor phone calls, with the Alabama delegation voting by a 6-1 margin against the measure. The lone dissenter among that delegation was Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills.

What else is going on?
1. GALLUP: 52% of Americans back legalizing gay marriage
2. An inside look at Alabama House leadership
3. Sessions cites immigration, overregulation and energy costs as flaws in Obama economic policy
4. 24th anniversary of the greatest House floor speech of all time
5. FBI admits to using drone surveillance in Alabama