‘60 Minutes’ Sheds 1.5 Million Viewers After Major Revamp

Ratings for the premiere of the revamped “60 Minutes” on CBS News were down by roughly 1.5 million viewers compared to last year.Data from Nielsen released on Tuesday showed that the premiere of the show’s 59th season brought in 7.94 million viewers, down from last year’s season premiere, which garnered roughly 9.5 million viewers. Despite the drop in viewers, the network celebrated data that show it was the top-performing “non-sports primetime program” in total viewers and in the coveted 25-54-year-old age range.The drop may in part be attributed to the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings that led up to “60 Minutes” on Sunday. It drew in roughly 18.4 million viewers, a decrease of about 23 percent from the 23.8 million viewers who watched the NFL game in that timeslot last year.Nielsen has also updated its methodology for tracking viewership, which may make a direct comparison harder.The storied newsmagazine program underwent major changes earlier this year, with the departure of four correspondents: Anderson Cooper, Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Scott Pelley. The show’s executive producer, Tanya Simon, the daughter of the legendary “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon, and other top producers also left the program. The shakeup led to dark warnings about the future of the program. The former head of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, said last week that she is “concerned” that the “DNA of ‘60 Minutes’” was being “rewritten.” Those changes came after executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, tasked CBS News’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, with addressing what they view as a left-wing bias at the Tiffany Network. After months of media reporters fretting about what the show would look like under the direction of Ms. Weiss and the new executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Nick Bilton, some media critics concluded that the program was not too different from the show that viewers have grown accustomed to. Sunday’s episode included a highly sought after interview with an Air Force colonel who was shot down over Iran last spring, a story about lobbyists who offer their services to try to secure a pardon for clients from President Trump, and a segment about the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, Sean McVay. While the show featured new correspondents, such as a former conservative columnist at the New York Times, Ross Douthat, critics said the program was largely similar to previous seasons. The Times noted that the correspondents called the war in Iran “costly and unpopular” and said that Mr. Trump pardoned “a string of unrepentant financial con men.” CNN’s media analyst, Brian Stelter, said on Monday that “‘60 Minutes’ is still ‘60 Minutes.’”“The program is still doing what it’s always done,” Mr. Stelter said. “There have been some changes around the edges, some modernization.. The program is back and as strong as it ever was.”The premiere of “60 Minutes” had been closely watched by media insiders to see whether the predictions that Ms. Weiss’s shakeup would doom the program would come true, or if the drama would lead to a ratings boost. Earlier this year, CBS News also revamped its “Evening News” program. The launch of the new format, which debuted in January, was also closely watched as it was the first major shakeup under Ms. Weiss’s leadership. While the revamped show launched with lower ratings than the previous year, the network recently touted Nielsen data that showed that the “Evening News” averaged 4 million viewers in August, up 4 percent compared to the previous year. Those numbers still put the show in third place in the ratings race, but appears to show that the new format did not lead viewers to abandon the program.

‘60 Minutes’ Sheds 1.5 Million Viewers After Major Revamp

‘60 Minutes’ Sheds 1.5 Million Viewers After Major Revamp

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