An overhauled ‘60 Minutes’ sheds viewers in season premiere

Paramount’s overhaul of “60 Minutes,” and all the outrage that followed, did not spur many new viewers to check out the season premiere. About 7.94 million viewers tuned in for Sunday night’s season premiere, down from 10.03 million for the 2025 premiere, a major year-over-year drop. There are numerous reasons for the decline. Chiefly, ratings for the NFL match-up that preceded “60 Minutes” also declined about 20 percent year-over-year. But the results are still discouraging for CBS News, which suffered serious brand damage by firing several top “60 Minutes” producers and correspondents last May and June. Since then, “60” has been in rebuilding mode, and the newsmagazine put out a strong episode on Sunday night. But last spring’s changes — led by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss — may have alienated a greater number of viewers than they attracted. And the broader ratings environment is unforgiving, as every TV executive can attest. Nielsen recently changed its methodology, which has lowered TV ratings for many channels. That didn’t stop the schadenfreude and score-settling on Tuesday, as some Weiss critics pronounced her “60” reboot a failure while others called that unrealistic and unfair. CBS touts ‘exceptional journalism’ Anticipating a heap of negative headlines, CBS News issued a statement that read, “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.” The news division also emphasized the reach of “60 Minutes” content across YouTube and other social media platforms — something CBS News has been touting for years. The difference, this year, is that the new owners of Paramount — who are now seeking to buy CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery — have shaken up “60 Minutes” in dramatic fashion. In late May, CBS ousted correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega along with several of the show’s top producers, including executive producer Tanya Simon. Weiss tapped Nick Bilton, a New York Times alum and documentary producer with little broadcast news experience, to replace Simon. The following week, Scott Pelley confronted Weiss and Bilton at a staff meeting and accused Weiss of “murdering” the newsmagazine. A day later, CBS fired Pelley, who also accused the new management of forcing him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” — a charge the network denied. Days of bad press ensued, and some longtime fans said they would shun the show because of the politically charged overhaul. Weiss and Bilton vowed to modernize the newsmagazine and went on to hire several new correspondents and contributors. CBS also rolled out a marketing campaign to draw attention to the new season. But the pushback has continued: Over the weekend, an activist group even staged a protest outside CBS News headquarters with a digital sign that showed Paramount CEO David Ellison’s face with the words “David Ellison is murdering 60 Minutes.” Despite the personnel changes and a few technical tweaks, Sunday’s episode largely resembled the “60 Minutes” that viewers have known for years — scrutiny of President Donald Trump included. But the off-air controversies are proving hard to overcome. The football factor Television is all about lead-ins, and for the first five months of the season, “60 Minutes” has one of the best lead-ins of all: professional football. CBS televised the Packers–Vikings game on Sunday afternoon, which averaged about 18.6 million viewers. The equivalent game last year averaged 23.7 million. The drop is partly due to Nielsen’s methodology changes, including a revised estimate of the total audience that’s available to watch TV in the US. Last month the NFL spoke out publicly against what it called “rushed” changes to the methodology. What the NFL giveth, the NFL can also taketh away, and some CBS viewers probably switched over to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which kicked off while “60 Minutes” was still on. Regardless, “60 Minutes” has the kind of lead-in that other news programs would (and do) envy. And such a highly publicized revamp could have, in theory, attracted lots of newly curious eyeballs. Instead, “60” slipped below the 10-million-viewer mark on premiere night for the first time since 2020.