You are thinking of Mona Sax, she makes a brief appearance in the first game, but its in the second game where she shows up in most of the chapters (often showing up right before or after Max arrives to a location) and you play as in her in some of the later chapters.
Wait what? You watched 60 Minutes everyday? It was always Sunday evenings from my memories, during winter usually right after a Football game, don’t remember the exact timing tho.