Concerts

60 Minutes Season Premiere Sees Viewership Drop After Retooling

The CBS investigative series’ retooled season premiere attracted over two million fewer viewers than last year, marking a significant decline.

Consequence·Sep 15, 2026·via Consequence

60 Minutes Season Premiere Sees Viewership Drop After Retooling

The newly retooled 60 Minutes suffered a heavy TV audience falloff in its season premiere, Variety reports . The ratings for the investigative news program’s first episode dropped 21% from the previous season’s premiere, declining from 10.02 million to 7.94 million viewers according to Nielsen data. Additionally, viewers ages 25 to 54 were down 33% to about 1.58 million compared to last year.

Sunday marked the beginning of the show’s 59th season, having first debuted on September 24th, 1968. This latest season, though, is the culmination of a major revamping of 60 Minutes by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and new executive producer Nick Bilton. That revamping included the controversial firing of correspondent Scott Pelley after a public battle with Weiss over the direction of the show. Other reporters and behind-the-scenes figures were also shown the door or not asked to return over the last year.

Additionally, accusations of introducing political bias have plagued Weiss during her short tenure, allegations that she and the network have denied. CBS settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes segment in 2025 didn’t help perceptions, with commentators saying the network was caving to political interference with press freedoms.

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