NEW YORK, USA (AP) – The iconic stopwatch won’t be reset, but for six episodes this fall, 60 Minutes will become 90 minutes.

The CBS news magazine is stretching on some Sundays when CBS airs an NFL doubleheader, starting October 8. Often, the show doesn’t air until 7:30 pm on the East Coast those nights (it usually starts at 7 pm).

The request to Bill Owens, the show’s executive producer, came from top CBS executive George Cheeks, and predated the strikes that have paralysed Hollywood and left networks looking for more content. Owens said he needed to weigh whether the three extra hours across the six episodes would dilute the broadcast.

“My job is to protect the place,” he said. “I don’t ever want to harm a hair on the head of 60 Minutes.”

There will generally be two extra pieces on the 90-minute nights, and correspondents are already lobbying for more time to tell their stories. Extra producers have been brought in. Owens said the additional stories would likely lean toward feature or adventure fare, like one Bill Whitaker is preparing about a motorcycle race on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

More than a half-century in, 60 Minutes remains the most popular show in television news. It averaged close to nine million viewers each week last season, ranking first among non-sports, prime-time programmes in live viewing, seventh when a time-delayed audience of up to a week is added, the Nielsen company said.

The show’s stories get an additional 15 million views each week on various digital platforms, CBS said. That’s a different measurement than viewers; however, and doesn’t necessarily correspond to 15 million extra people.

60 Minutes has almost completely turned over its correspondent corps since its glory years, with Lesley Stahl remaining as the elder stateswoman. She began in 1991.

The latest newbie is former ABC correspondent Cecilia Vega, who joined earlier this year. A bit starstruck, she admits that, “I still take videos and send them to my mom when I’m walking around the hallways in my office.”