It’s not surprising to see “60 Minutes” ratings plummet when CBS doesn’t air a strong football game before the show begins. But the show’s performance on Sunday, which lacked exactly that kind of introduction to the NFL, is nonetheless alarming.
The fifth episode of this season’s cycle of the venerable CBS newsmagazine drew just 5.64 million viewers, one of the program’s smallest audiences in years, according to Nielsen data. The show attracted only 558,000 viewers among those aged 25 to 54, the demographic group most coveted by advertisers in news programs.
Since 2000, a sixth episode of “60 Minutes” has never failed to attract fewer than seven million total viewers and fewer than one million viewers in the advertiser category.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment, and the network itself had not publicly released Nielsen data as of Tuesday evening. The Nielsen figures were confirmed by four people familiar with the matter. For the evening, “60 Minutes” was the second most-watched non-sports program on television, behind the CBS drama series “Tracker” and “Marshals.” Typically, “60 Minutes” finishes first in this category.
Such numbers could be a source of consternation for CBS News, the CBS television network and parent company Skydance. “60 Minutes” has long been one of the most-watched non-sports programs on television and is meant to funnel NFL viewers to the rest of CBS’ prime-time Sunday lineup. Compared to the newsmagazine’s previous year’s telecast, which had a heavier soccer lead-in, Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast fell 60 percent in overall viewership and 81 percent among viewers ages 25 to 54.
CBS News remains under intense pressure to demonstrate the stability of the program, which was chaotically overhauled at the end of last season despite a notable 9% increase in overall viewership. Bari Weiss, executive editor of CBS News, ousted Tanya Simon, an executive producer with years of experience on the series, in favor of Nick Bilton, a reporter and writer with less formal television experience. Correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were also kicked out. Anderson Cooper left of his own accord after his contract ended. Their replacements, who include Ross Douthat and contributors like Ariel Levy and Sebastian Junger, have a high-level education but also little experience working on a weekly television show emphasizing long-form business journalism.
Sunday’s show faced competition from a late-night football game on Fox.
The show featured an investigation into the Trump administration’s efforts to deport people to countries they have no ties to, and the show’s investigation revealed how some deportees are then forced to return to the countries they initially fled. The segment echoes one from last season in which correspondent Alfonsi examined the deportation of some migrants to harsh prisons in El Salvador, a story that sparked controversy because Weiss requested that it air late in production. The show also featured interviews with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Tina Peters, a top elections official whose sentence was related to a conviction for violating her county’s election system that he commuted.
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