How Were 60 Minutes’ Season Premiere Ratings After Months Of BTS Changes?
The season opener logged the show’s smallest premiere audience since at least 2000, with the key 25-to-54 demo also falling 33%, early figures showed.
- On Sunday, the 59th season premiere of 60 Minutes drew 7.7 million viewers, marking its smallest premiere audience since at least 2000, according to preliminary Nielsen data.
- CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss led a summer overhaul that replaced executive producer Tanya Simon with Nick Bilton and saw correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, and Sharyn Alfonsi depart the program.
- Viewership among the key 25-to-54 demographic plunged 33%, while Nielsen's methodology changes and a split NFL audience between CBS and Fox contributed to the decline, the network noted.
- The Wrap's A.J. Katz described the premiere as "more evolution than revolution," even as the episode marked the newsmagazine's smallest premiere audience in records dating back to at least 2000.
- CBS News faces pressure to stabilize viewership as industry analysts suggested subsequent weeks will offer a more accurate test of the revamped format's staying power.
26 Articles
26 Articles
Darcy’s Freakout Over Patriotism at ‘60 Minutes’ and the Real Story Behind Its Ratings
Screenshot via CBS/Snapstream On cue, Status’s Oliver Darcy lost his noodle Monday night in writing about the season 59 premiere of CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, screeching about the patriotism outweighing the Trump-bashing in Norah O’Donnell’s lead story about the April rescue of two airmen in Iran, the sausage-making behind securing such a big interview, and how the second piece about the Trump “pardon economy” was supposedly insufficiently Trum…
The Independent
The Independent (US)Bari Weiss’ overhaul of 60 Minutes sees season premiere hit 25-year ratings low
Among adults aged 25-54 ratings plunged by 33 percent, according to a report
60 Minutes just ticked off its new season with its smallst first audience since 2000, the Los Angeles Times reports. The CBS newsmagazine drew 7.9 million viewers Sunday, Nielsen says, a 21% slide from last year's opening and below its 2025-26 season increase of 9.1 million. That's despite...
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