RATINGS ROUT

Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ Gets Brutal Reality Check After Trump Grilling

The president’s sit-down lacked viewers.

CBS boss Bari Weiss has taken a brutal hit after the ratings reveal on 60 Minutes’ interview with President Donald Trump.

Sunday’s interview with Trump, 80, and new 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat, 46, drew 7.8 million viewers, down more than 25 percent from the previous week, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel figures cited by TheWrap.

Among 25- to 54-year-olds, the most sought-after audience in TV advertising, only 918,000 tuned in–less than half the figure from the same week last year.

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It was the second-weakest turnout for a Trump episode of the show since 2015, TheWrap reported.

Trump’s November 2025 interview, which followed a Chiefs-Bills game, drew nearly 14 million viewers, leaving Sunday’s audience down 44 percent.

It was also off 26 percent from the previous week’s 10.5 million. The only consolation: Sunday edged out Trump’s April appearance, which drew 7.4 million, by 5 percent.

Not helping was the lack of an NFL lead-in, which provides a boost for the broadcast, Variety reported.

Douthat’s interviewing drew praise from across the political and media spectrum, with Fox News commentator Brit Hume calling his performance “polite, persistent and revealing.” CNN’s Brian Stelter also praised the interview. A conservative former New York Times columnist, Douthat had never worked as a TV correspondent before joining 60 Minutes this summer.

Douthat opened by noting that Republicans had lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. Trump said he wasn’t on the ballot, but Douthat shot back: “You picked the candidates.”

To close the interview, Douthat asked Trump what he thought would happen when he died. Trump initially said he hoped he would be missed. But when Douthat clarified that he meant where Trump thought he would go after death, the president replied: “I’m a religious person, so in theory I go to heaven.” Asked whether he thought he would get there, Trump said: “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell.”

The steady ratings decline is an awkward look for Weiss, who overhauled the 60 Minutes roster at the end of last season, even as the show had grown its viewership by 9 percent under its previous executive producer, Tanya Simon.

Weiss got the job when Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, 43, son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison, 82, acquired her outlet, The Free Press, in a deal valued at $150 million.

Following Weiss’s turbulent revamp, the show faces pressure to prove the shake-up was worth it. Weiss replaced veteran executive producer Simon, 55, with Nick Bilton, 50, a journalist and filmmaker with no traditional broadcast TV experience. Correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, 54, and Cecilia Vega, 49, were fired, while Scott Pelley, 69, was also dismissed after clashing with the new leadership. Anderson Cooper, 59, left voluntarily when his contract expired.

In July, 60 Minutes announced Douthat as a new correspondent, alongside contributors Sebastian Junger, 64, and Gianna Toboni, 39. The appointments came two months after Weiss’s shake-up. Former New Yorker writer Ariel Levy, 52, joined as a contributor in August.

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Sunday’s episode also featured Trevor Phillips, 72, the former Sky News host Weiss hired in June as CBS News’ senior global affairs correspondent. Phillips interviewed Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally, amid escalating protests in France.

The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment.

Briana CharlesReporter

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