Soon he received a lucrative offer at the CBS television network, which was seeking someone who had "picture experience" to help with production of television broadcast. Hewitt started at its news division, CBS News, in 1948 and served as producer-director of the network's evening-news broadcast with Douglas Edwards for fourteen years. He was also the first director of "See It Now," co-produced by host Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly that started in 1951; his use of "two film projectors cutting back and forth breaks up the monotony of a talking head, improves editing, and shapes future news broadcasts." In 1956, Hewitt was the only one to capture on film the final moments of the SS Andrea Doria as it sank and disappeared under the water.