Bari Weiss’s ’60 Minutes’ season debuts with worst ratings in over 25 YEARS… but insiders say the data is misleading

60 Minutes stumbled out of the gate ratings-wise to kick off its 59th season, according to Nielsen – but data doesn’t tell the entire story, insiders say.

The newsmagazine’s episode on Sunday was its least-viewed debut since at least 2000, statistics show.

An estimated 7.9 million viewers tuned in to watch an interview with an Air Force pilot shot down over Iran and a hidden camera probe from Lesley Stahl – down 21 percent since Season 58, when roughly 9.5 million viewers were recorded.

The very next month, Free Press founder Bari Weiss was named CBS News’ editor-in-chief. A period of fierce transformation followed – changes 60 Minutes perhaps felt the most.

Correspondents and executives were cut and replaced when Season 58 wrapped in May. The moves fueled an air of anticipation – and even trepidation – about how the show would look when it returned.

Claims of ‘political bias’ from now-former correspondent Scott Pelley the following month did not help. He was fired on June 2 after criticizing Weiss and new executive producer Nick Bilton at the latter’s first staff meeting.

The result from Nielsen, ergo, is an unwelcome one – but the numbers are misleading, multiple figures in the industry said Tuesday. Nielsen changed their methodology just days ago, Puck’s Dylan Byers pointed out.

A source familiar with the ratings made the same point to The Daily Mail, as other outlets dunked on CBS before the official numbers were even released while citing preliminary data.

‘The lazy and convenient narrative would be to claim audiences abandoned 60 Minutes because of all the noise, but the numbers tell a far different story,’ the source told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.

Sure enough, Nielsen changed their methodology on August 31 – a change the NFL criticized as ‘rushed’ just before its rollout.

Nielsen numbers for Sunday showed the league recording an almost identical drop in percentage points as 60 Minutes – 22 percent. The source pointed out that CBS actually retained a larger percentage share of the NFL lead-in audience in 2026 than it did in 2025 – 43 percent to 42 percent.

In 2025, the only late national NFL game airing after that year’s 60 Minutes premiere aired on CBS – whereas this year, both Fox and CBS had games, causing viewer drop-offs.

Moreover, the new methodology implemented by Nielsen, and its alterations to how the company measures whether multiple people are watching an event simultaneously, made comparisons to dates before the change almost meaningless.

Byers, Puck’s senior media reporter, wrote in one of two posts that pointed out the same: ‘Every story out there about ’60 Minutes’ suffering a ~19 percent year-over-year preliminary ratings drop isn’t also telling you that CBS’s NFL 4.25pm ET window suffered a ~23 percent year-over-year ratings drop.

‘I’m sorry if this complicates your Bari narrative,’ Byers added. 

The episode itself received mostly positive reviews, despite the media storm that preceded it. 

On social media, commentators who write for outlets like Politico, The Atlantic, New York Magazine and The Washington Post also complimented the finished product. 

‘The verdict is in: it’s still “60 Minutes!”‘ wrote New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin on X. 

A Hollywood Reporter headline offered perhaps the harshest take, criticizing the showing as ‘bland.’

Chief critic Daniel Fienberg felt it ‘suggest[ed] a limited Bari Weiss effect (So Far).’

Weiss, the founder of the center-right Free Press, was hired by then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison. Within months as chief, Weiss saw 60 Minutes ‘as calcified and resistant to change,’ sources told CNN in late May.

Days later, Weiss handpicked Bilton to replace longtime producer Tanya Simon. An array of firings were carried out as well.

Pelley, one of the show’s longest-serving journalists, was fired the following week. 

He accused Weiss of ‘murdering’ 60 Minutes. The show has long enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.

A recording of the June 1 meeting was leaked to the press.

That weekend, after being fired, Pelley claimed in an interview with The New York Times that ‘there’s a subtle political bias’ at both CBS and 60 Minutes, citing the new leadership.

Ellison, 43, is the son of conservative billionaire Larry Ellison, a known Donald Trump acquaintance.

He on-boarded Weiss just weeks after Paramount completed a merger with his former company, Skydance Media. The merger did not receive federal approval for more than a year beforehand, but was approved shortly after CBS settled a $16 million lawsuit filed against the network by Trump.

Claims of bribery and political slant followed.

60 Minutes’ top exec before Simon, Bill Owens, publicly accused Paramount of interfering with the show’s journalistic integrity while the merger was in limbo, resigning in protest in April 2025. 

Anderson Cooper left the show after more than two decades last May as well, fueling concerns from journalists the show was poised for change.

Both Weiss and Bilton have no broadcast experience. 

Ratings for CBS shows aside from 60 Minutes, meanwhile, have failed to impress, adding to the Weiss scrutiny.