’60 Minutes’ Audience Sinks to Surprising Low Without Football

It’s not surprising to see ratings at “60 Minutes” slump when CBS doesn’t air a strong football game before the start of the show. But the program’s performance on Sunday, which lacked exactly that kind of NFL lead-in, is alarming nonetheless.

The fifth episode of this season’s cycle of the venerable CBS newsmagazine drew only 5.64 million viewers, one of the smallest audiences for the program in years, according to data from Nielsen. The show captured a mere 558,000 among viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic coveted most by advertisers in news programming.

Since 2000, a sixth episode of “60 Minutes” has never failed to capture less than seven million viewers overall and less than one million viewers in the advertiser category.

CBS News declined to make executives available for comment, and the network had not released the Nielsen data itself publicly as of Tuesday evening. The Nielsen numbers were confirmed by four people familiar with the information. For the night, “60 Minutes” was the second-most-watched non-sports program on broadcast TV, behind CBS dramas “Tracker” and “Marshals.” Typically, “60 Minutes” finishes first in that category.

Such numbers may be cause for consternation at CBS News, the CBS television network and corporate parent Skydance. “60 Minutes” has long stood as one of the most-watched programs on TV that isn’t tied to sports, and is supposed to funnel viewers from the NFL into the rest of the CBS Sunday primetime lineup. Compared to the year-earlier telecast of the newsmagazine, which had a more robust football lead-in, Sunday’s telecast of “60 Minutes” fell 60% in overall viewership and a whopping 81% among viewers between 25 and 54.

CBS News remains under intense pressure to demonstrate stability at the program, which was overhauled in chaotic fashion at the end of last season, despite mustering a notable 9% uptick in overall viewership. Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor in chief, ousted Tanya Simon, an executive producer with years of history working at the show, in favor of Nick Bilton, a journalist and screenwriter with less formal TV experience. Also pushed out were correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Anderson Cooper left of his own volition following the end of his contract. Their replacements, which include Ross Douthat and contributors like Ariel Levy and Sebastian Junger, have top-shelf backgrounds, but also little experience working on a weekly TV program that emphasizes long-form enterprise journalism.

Sunday’s telecast faced competition from a late football game on Fox.

The program featured a probe into the Trump administration’s efforts to deport people to countries where they have no ties, and the show’s investigation revealed how some deportees are being subsequently forced back to the nations they originally fled. The segment echoed one from last season during which correspondent Alfonsi examined the deportation of some migrants to harsh prisons in El Salvador, a story that generated controversy because Weiss asked it for it be held at a late stage in production. The show also featured interviews with Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Tina Peters, a top election official whose sentence tied to a conviction of breaching her county’s election system he commuted.