CBS News’ “60 Minutes” beat a key benchmark for the first time under new, heavily scrutinized executives, but managed only a small increase in ratings despite its strong lead in football.
The CBS newsmagazine featured an in-depth interview with Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday, attracting an average of 10.2 million viewers; A study of how the US workforce may be affected by artificial intelligence;’ and a look at how priests at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Italy repaired the 13th-century structure using lasers, high-tech cameras and advanced technology.
These figures surpassed last season’s average audience of 9.1 million viewers for the series; The series achieved this for the first time this season. At the same time, the show only garnered 50,000 more viewers than its previous year’s broadcast, which garnered around 10.15 million viewers, according to Nielsen figures.
Sunday’s broadcast attracted nearly 2 million viewers ages 25 to 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers in news programming. This figure also exceeded last season’s average of approximately 1.45 million.
CBS may have higher hopes for Sunday’s broadcast. CBS Sports’ telecast of the Kanas City Chiefs taking on the Las Vegas Raiders reached an audience of 28.4 million; CBS said it was the most-watched NFL game of the season and the best fourth-week broadcast of an NFL game across any network.
Even though CBS News enjoyed a significant 9% increase in overall viewership, it remains under intense pressure to demonstrate stability in the schedule that was chaotically overhauled at the end of last season. Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News, fired executive producer Tanya Simon, who had a years-long history with the series, and replaced her with journalist and screenwriter Nick Bilton, who had less formal TV experience. Also expelled were reporters Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Anderson Cooper left voluntarily after his contract expired. Their replacements, including Ross Douthat and contributors like Ariel Levy and Sebastian Junger, have high-level backgrounds but also little experience working on a weekly TV show that emphasizes long-form corporate journalism.
While executives are working feverishly to make their mark on the venerable program and continue to produce high-quality stories despite the disruption in the offseason production process, they are also grappling with the changes in live TV. CBS’ Sunday NFL broadcast ran late, meaning “60 Minutes” spent most of its time opposite NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” one of TV’s biggest audience generators.
Paramount and Warner Bros. Executives at Discovery’s merged company, Skydance, will want to see “60 Minutes” do more with football viewers. The series is expected to serve as a bridge between CBS’ football games and its Sunday night primetime schedule, which this season includes “Marshals,” “Tracker” and “Cupertino.”
Meanwhile, “CBS Evening News” saw an increase in overall viewership last week, with the show’s overall viewership reaching 4.2 million, up 18% from the previous year. The program had trouble retaining over 4 million viewers last year. Viewership in the 25th to 54th demo increased 46% to 585,000.
“CBS Evening News” has long ranked third behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News.” Although CBS News President Tom Cibrowski focuses on “CBS Mornings,” he has been working closely with the evening broadcast in recent weeks. Cibrowski last week hired former “Nightline” executive producer Steven Baker as a consultant to help with both the evening and morning shows.