Nielsen does not have good news for “60 Minutes.”
The ratings service says this past Sunday show drew just 10.4 million viewers including delayed viewing.
Last season, episode 5 of “60 Minutes” scored 11.1 million viewers.
Average ratings are down 15% so far from last year.
What’s worrisome is that this Sunday, “60 Minutes” had the lead-in from a wild NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. It ended just as the newsmag started, delivering a record number 28.1 million viewers.
On the previous Sunday, there was no lead-in, and CBS used that as an excuse for low numbers.
The fear is that viewers are boycotting “60 Minutes” in its new form.
This past week kicked off with new correspondent Ross Douthat interviewing Michigan senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers. He was very easy on El-Sayed, who could not definitively say Israel has a right to exist.
It didn’t matter. El-Sayed had already been handed the win earlier in the day by Haley Stevens’ bizarre endorsement of Rogers.
The other two segments were bores. Matt Gutman, a lightweight reporter from ABC News hired by Bari Weiss, reported on Cuba without much information. Then Jon Wertheim turned in a puff piece on San Antonio Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama.
There was nothing from Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, or Norah O’Donnell. The show was sorely missing contributions from fired reporters Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega, or even Anderson Cooper.
Conventional wisdom was that the ratings would bounce back because of football. But they didn’t. So now what? CBS News election coverage on Tuesday night was lower than all the networks including cable. Just 2.3 million watched Tony Doukopil — who seemed lost when I saw him — try to follow Norah O’Donnell, Gayle King, and Major Garrett in the conversation.
