Bari Weiss lost 2.09 million viewers on her first 60 Minutes premiere. The season 59 opener drew 7.94 million on Sunday night, September 13, down 21 percent from the 10.03 million who watched last September 28, according to final Nielsen figures provided to TheWrap. CNN's Brian Stelter carries the same number. It also ran below the 2025-26 season average of 9.1 million.
The 25-54 demographic fell harder: 1.6 million, down 33 percent.
TheWrap, reviewing Nielsen records, found no smaller 60 Minutes season premiere since at least 2000 — the first this century below 9 million viewers and below 2 million in the demo. Mediaite called it a 25-year low; the Los Angeles Times said the same. Oliver Darcy's Status called it the worst debut of the 21st century and quoted a longtime TV executive: "death spiral."
Narativ reported on September 4, 2025 that Paramount was installing Weiss, an opinion writer who had never run a news division, at Edward R. Murrow's network. A CBS insider gave the verdict then: "Good night, and bad luck."
The audience kept leaving inside the hour, down to 6 million by the final quarter.
CBS has a defense, and it is not a stupid one — a weaker football lead-in, a late start, a new Nielsen method. One number buried inside the ratings answers all three, and it explains why CBS fired Scott Pelley in May, and why the network says it could not be prouder.
