‘60 Minutes’ Notches Ratings Gain Over Last Year, but Cedes Viewers From Season Premiere

CBS News’ “60 Minutes” shed some of the viewers it snared during its much-anticipated Season 59 debut as it grappled with the effects of CBS’ football programming on its audience, even as it notched a gain in audience compared to its year-earlier performance.

The audience for the second telecast of the venerable newsmagazine rose 5% over last season’s second-week telecast, according to data from Nielsen, rising to nearly 6.77 million, compared with nearly 6.46 million a year ago. Viewership among people between 25 and 54, the demographic desired most by advertisers in news programming, rose 18%, to 1.08 million, compared with 917,000 last year. CBS News was also impressed by social views for the episode, which totaled 179.2 million, compared with 116.7 million for the prior week — a new record for the show.

Nonetheless, linear viewership for the show is down compared to the prior week, when CBS News enjoyed a national NFL lead-in that helped boost the initial audience for the program.

And the numbers are below last season’s average. The overall audience for “60 Minutes” last season was 8.16 million, according to Nielsen, and 1.32 million in the 25-to-54 demographic.

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 emphsizes long-form enterprise journalism.

Sunday’s “60 Minutes” featured a big “get” that would have raised eyebrows at a true-crime series like NBC News’ “Dateline” or ABC News’ “20/20,” or even on one of the national morning-news programs. New correspondent Ross Douthat interviewed Patrick Clancy, former husband to Lindsay Clancy when she strangled their three children and claimed mental illness as a factor. The interview led Sunday’s show and delved into whether Patrick Clancy forgave his ex-wife, and allowed him to introduce his new spouse. Some of those elements came at the expense of more investigative work into the problems the medical industry has dealing with treating post-partum depression. Other segments featured Jon Wertheim on the trail of a long-missing racehorse and Norah O’Donnell examining sentiment toward the construction of data centers in rural areas of the nation.

The audience for the first telecast of the season fell 21% from last year’s season kick off, according to data from Nielsen, a drop of more than 2 million viewers — resulting in an audience of about 7.94 million, compared with nearly 10.02 million from last year’s open. Meanwhile, viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 fell 33% from year-ago figures, according to Nielsen, to about 1.58 million, compared to 2.36 million for last year’s season premiere. CBS’ NFL telecast leading into the season premiere drew a smaller audience than it did last year.