This past summer was quite eventful for 60 Minutes, which underwent a myriad of behind-the-scenes changes. As part of that overhaul led by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, new producers were brought in as well as a host of new anchors and correspondents. In the lead-up to the season premiere, media pundits weighed in on how the series might perform after its makeover. Well, the initial ratings for the Season 59 premiere are now in, and they seem to mark a low point for the long-running show.
Nielsen has dropped some information in the aftermath of 60 Minutes’ return amid the 2026 TV schedule on Sunday, September 13. Per The New York Post, the preliminary ratings show that the news magazine series earned 7.7 million viewers on premiere night. That marked the smallest audience the series has had for a season premiere since around 2000. For the sake of comparison, Season 58’s premiere notched 9.5 million viewers around this time last year.
What’s also worth mentioning is that the figures show 60 having been down around 19% when it comes to total viewers. It’s also apparently been seeing losses in that key 25-54 demographic range, as it’s reportedly down 33% on that front. However, with that 19% drop, the show did still manage to maintain a somewhat larger portion of its NFL lead-in compared to last year.
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On that note, historically, 60 has had the benefit of having a strong lead-in in the form of CBS’ NFL doubleheader. The Post reported that the game that directly preceded the news program scored 18.4 million viewers, though that number was down from about 22% compared to the 23.8 million total a year ago. Ahead of the premiere, sources alleged that execs were questioning whether loyal 60 Minutes viewers would tune in after the show’s updates. What should be mentioned, though, is that these ratings are only preliminary numbers, so the final figures could change.
The changes to the aforementioned news program began to take shape at the end of May, at which point EP Tanya Simon and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich were let go. Correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were also fired, and Scott Pelley was let go as well shortly after accusing Weiss of “murdering” the show. Sebastian Junger, Ariel Levy, Sir Trevor Phillips, Ross Douthat and Gianna Toboni have since joined the program alongside vets Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim.
Aside from the new faces in front of and behind the camera, Weiss has also been contending with allegations of “journalistic interference” and political partiality. Whitaker even spoke about confronting Weiss about her editorial methods. Although Weiss didn’t think she was interfering, she did tell Whitaker to call her out if she ever did it again. Despite any alleged strife unfolding within the CBS News offices, it’s been said that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is confident in her leadership.
These early ratings for 60 Minutes’ season premiere do pose questions for the show moving forward. Of course, at this point, it remains to be seen how the show will hold up in the months to come. We’ll just have to wait and see how everything pans out. The show airs on Sundays at 7 p.m. ET (or 7:30 ET if NFL games run long) on CBS.
