DISASTER

MAGA-Coded CBS Boss Suffers Fresh ’60 Minutes’ Blow

The latest installment of “60 Minutes” was the worst-rated fourth episode since the start of the 21st century.

The revamped 60 Minutes has been hit with a fresh ratings blow.

Just 6.06 million people tuned into the newsmagazine’s fourth episode of its 59th season on Oct. 10, and about 767,000 viewers were in the key 25-54 age demographic, which TV advertisers closely watch. The figures are lower than this time last year, when the program pulled in nearly one million more viewers for the fourth episode of that season.

More troubling, this episode was the worst-rated fourth episode since the start of the 21st century.

The low numbers come despite the episode including newsy segments featuring Lesly Stahl from the West Bank and an interview with the director of the Secret Service.

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The poor ratings come just one week after the program got a more impressive 10.2 million total viewers and 2 million viewers in the demo on Oct. 4. But it should be noted that that episode benefited from a lead-in from the NFL, unlike last week’s.

A source familiar with the ratings told the Daily Beast that CBS had been expecting somewhat of a viewer drop-off this week as there was no NFL lead-in, as Fox was carrying the late NFL game. The source added that viewers had increased throughout the broadcast as the games wrapped up.

This season’s premiere also plummeted in the ratings as compared to previous season openers, as its debut, similar to the fourth episode this season, was the lowest-rated since 2000.

The low ratings come as controversy has swirled around CBS News since Bari Weiss, who had no professional experience in TV news before assuming her new role, took over the network as editor-in-chief late last year. She was installed after David Ellison, a son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison, and his company Paramount Skydance purchased her “anti-woke” news and opinion blog, The Free Press, for $150 million.

She and Ellison, 43, have attempted to make the network more Trump-friendly, but buyouts, layoffs, and criticism have scarred the network’s rightward lurch.

Her leadership over the last season of 60 Minutes was particularly controversial, as the newsmagazine was plagued with infighting that spilled out into the public eye.

She had clashed with producers and former 60 Minutes correspondents, especially Sharyn Alfonsi, whom she later fired, over her last-minute decision to shelve a segment on the conditions at CECOT, the infamous El Salvadoran mega-prison where the Trump administration sent deportees.

In addition to canning Alfonsi, she also fired Cecilia Vega, who was the first Latina to be appointed as a 60 Minutes correspondent, and former correspondent Scott Pelley was fired within hours of voicing concerns about the direction of 60 Minutes under Weiss. Anderson Cooper, who had also been a 60 Minutes correspondent for 20 years, quit earlier this year.

When the dust had settled over her Season 58 “bloodbath,” just three of the seven correspondents remained.

She has since installed Nick Bilton, who, like her, had no experience in broadcast news, as executive producer, and brought conservative commentator Ross Douthat and Norah O’Donnell into the fold as correspondents.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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