60 Minutes Premiere Ratings Dropped to 25-Year Low

60 Minutes 2026 Season

60 Minutes appears on track to record its worst season premiere ratings in more than a quarter-century as the storied CBS newsmagazine returned Sunday following a staff overhaul under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

Sunday’s season opener drew an estimated 7.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, making it the least-watched 60 Minutes premiere in records stretching back to at least 2000. Under these figures, the audience was down 21% from last year’s premiere, while viewership among adults aged 25 to 54 plunged 33%. In October 2000, for example, the show premiered with a whopping 11.2 million total viewers.

The result is an early setback for CBS after months of intense scrutiny surrounding Weiss’s remake of one of television’s most prominent news programs.

Perhaps more striking was the audience delivered to the broadcast.

An NFL game immediately preceding 60 Minutes attracted 18.4 million viewers, meaning more than 10 million viewers disappeared before the newsmagazine began.

The numbers, however, are preliminary and could rise when Nielsen releases its final figures Tuesday afternoon.

Another factor at play is the NFL game that preceded 60 Minutes, according to a source familiar with the ratings.

Sunday’s gridiron match-up between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings on CBS failed to generate the same viewership as last year’s contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens.

In addition, there was also a late-afternoon game between the Washington Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles on Fox to contend with. Last year, Fox did not air a late-afternoon game.

Sunday’s premiere featured correspondent Norah O’Donnell interviewing an Air Force officer shot down over Iran, Lesley Stahl investigating the presidential pardon business and Jon Wertheim profiling the Los Angeles Rams. Former New York Times conservative columnist Ross Douthat closed the broadcast with a segment about artificial intelligence and the importance of “journalism you can trust.”

The show was met with some backlash from liberal pundits and critics, who focused on the appearance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but was largely well-received.

Puck media correspondent Dylan Byers also cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the initial comparison, pointing to changes in how television audiences are now measured.

“Critics will treat that as a big deal, and it’ll sting inside 60, but the truth is that Nielsen just changed its methodology (pissing off NFL, among others) and, as CBS PR is eager to point out, Fox also has double header NFL game this year. Main point here is that, as with so much TV, ratings are impacted by myriad forces,” Byers wrote on X.

“In any event, preliminary numbers are 7.7 million but will likely finish slightly higher,” he added.

The debut follows extraordinary upheaval at 60 Minutes with the departure of correspondents Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with executive producer Tanya Simon, during restructuring.

The revamped program has since brought in Douthat as a correspondent, alongside new contributors including Sebastian Junger, Gianna Toboni, Trevor Phillips, Matt Gutman and Ariel Levy.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to replace the preliminary Nielsen figures with the final data set.

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