The revamped 60 Minutes premiered to its smallest audience in a quarter-century.
The once-storied news program opened Sunday night to an audience of about 7.7 million, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings, marking the lowest viewership for the newsmagazine’s season opener since at least the turn of the century.
The CBS staple returns for its 59th season under the leadership of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, a former conservative blogger with no previous experience running a television newsroom, and tech columnist-turned-executive producer Nick Bilton.
The premiere comes after Weiss, who has been accused of attempting to interfere with the show on behalf of the Trump administration, gutted the staff in favor of a rightward shift.
A CBS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
The catastrophic ratings blow came after CBS had an incredibly strong lead-in to the program—Sunday night football.
Faceoffs between the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals, as well as the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers were broadcast directly before 60 Minutes aired. CBS’ Sunday night football broadcasts drew a larger audience than any other program on cable television, according to Yahoo Sports.
But 60 Minutes drew ten million fewer viewers than its lead-in, the New York Post reported.
A television exeuctive told the Daily Beast preliminary data for Suday night football on CBS comes in at around 18.4 million, compared to last year’s audience of 23.7. This, they argued, was a primary reason for 60 Minutes decline in views.
The show, which was gutted earlier this year, was filled with Trump-friendly guests, including Ed Martin, who exited the Trump administration after a year as a United States pardon attorney. He was featured on a segment centered on a 60 Minutes hidden-camera investigation into brokering pardons for felons.
Additionally, Pete Hegseth and his cronies reportedly pushed two American airmen whose F-15 was shot down over Iran to appear on Sunday’s season premiere, according to multiple sources who spoke to CNN.
Ross Douthat, 60 Minutes’ new conservative hire, ended the show’s season opener with a nod to its controversial changes. Citing a former Anthropic employee’s warning that artificial intelligence could imminently wipe out humankind, Douthat said: “That clock is ticking, and so is ours,” as the show’s trademark ticking sound effect played beneath him. “For almost 60 years, it has meant the same thing. Journalism you can trust. Where we’re headed, we’re going to need it.”
