“60 Minutes” is off to a rough start in its first full season under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
The long-running CBS newsmagazine drew about 7.7 million viewers for its season opener, its smallest premiere audience in records dating back to at least 2000, and, year over year, the premiere was down 19 percent among total viewers and 33 percent in the key 25-to-54 demographic, the early figures showed, reported the New York Post.
“Final Nielsen numbers for Sunday will be available this afternoon,” CNN’s Brian Stelter posted on BlueSky. “But preliminary numbers landed this morning, and a top TV exec tells me it ‘looks like the ’60 Minutes’ premiere will be down more than 20%’ versus the season premiere last year. The number to beat from last September was 10 million.”
“To be fair, the exec said, ‘the NFL lead-in is weaker this year,’” Stelter added. “‘And there have been Nielsen methodology changes. But it is ‘still going to be a pretty striking drop.’”
The Packers-Vikings game preceding “60 Minutes” drew 18.4 million viewers, down 22 percent from 23.8 million a year ago, but “60 Minutes” itself fell from 9.5 million to 7.7 million — meaning it retained a slightly larger share of its lead-in than last year.
The source also noted NFL viewership on NBC was down 12 percent on Wednesday, amid the league’s criticism of Nielsen and questions over whether methodology changes are skewing the numbers.
Unlike last year, when CBS alone aired a late-afternoon NFL game, both CBS and Fox aired late games this year, splitting the football audience.
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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