‘60 Minutes’ has its worst ratings in more than 25 years after staff shakeup
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Add The New York Post on Google“60 Minutes” stumbled out of the gate with its lowest-rated season premiere of the 21st century, according to Nielsen ratings.
The long-running program drew 7.9 million viewers for its season opener, marking its smallest premiere audience in records dating back to at least 2000. It was also the first premiere this century to fall below 9 million total viewers and 2 million viewers in the key 25-to-54 demographic.
The weak opening comes at the start of the first full season under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Year over year, the premiere was down 21% among total viewers and 33% in the key 25-to-54 demographic, according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings. Last year’s premiere drew just over 10 million viewers.
An NFL game leading into “60 Minutes” drew 18.4 million viewers, meaning the news program’s audience was more than 10 million smaller than its lead-in.
The audience also fell sharply over the course of the broadcast, from 9.4 million viewers in the first quarter-hour following the NFL game to 6.7 million in the final quarter-hour, according to Nielsen data.
CBS pointed to brighter spots in the numbers, noting that “60 Minutes” still ranked as the week’s top non-sports primetime program and Sunday’s No. 1 news program, while social video views nearly tripled from last season’s premiere.
“We are so proud of the exceptional journalism on display in our season premiere and we can’t wait to bring our audience another amazing show this coming Sunday,” CBS News said in a statement.
A source with knowledge of the numbers reached by The Post pointed to a weaker NFL lead-in.
The Packers-Vikings game preceding “60 Minutes” drew 18.4 million viewers, down about 22% from 23.8 million a year ago.
The source also noted that NFL viewership on NBC was down 12% on Wednesday, amid the league’s criticism of Nielsen and questions over whether changes to the ratings firm’s methodology are affecting the numbers.
There was another key difference from last year’s premiere: CBS was the only network carrying a late-afternoon NFL game a year ago, while both CBS and Fox aired late games this year, splitting the available football audience.
The softer NFL lead-in comes amid broader questions about the league’s TV ratings after the NFL blasted changes to Nielsen’s measurement methodology.
NFL data chief Paul Ballew said the league was still trying to determine the full impact of the revisions.
“We don’t have enough impact data to fully assess,” Ballew said, adding that the league’s initial read was that some of the changes looked “like a negative for sports.”
That uncertainty is looming over CBS’s disappointing “60 Minutes” premiere.
“A lot of the success of ’60 Minutes’ has to do with the lead-in, the NFL ratings,” one CBS insider told The Post. “The NFL season f-d them.”
The source also noted that this year CBS had to compete with Fox for the late-afternoon football audience, while last year CBS was the only network carrying a late game.
The Giants-Cowboys matchup on NBC at 8:20 p.m. also likely siphoned off viewers, the person said.
So far in 2026, “60 Minutes” is tracking toward its lowest-rated year of the 21st century, averaging 7.6 million total viewers and just under 1.1 million among adults 25 to 54.
Another CBS source pointed to the messy departure of longtime correspondent Scott Pelley as another potential factor hanging over the show.
“The one thing I keep thinking about is after the Pelley fiasco, ‘CBS Mornings’ saw an immediate drop in viewers. Half a million overnight. ’60’ now has lost two million,” the person said.
“The ghost of Scott’s firing, and everyone else’s, will haunt that program — and Nick and Bari — forever,” the source added, referring to Bilton and Weiss.