'60 Minutes' Suffers Humiliating Ratings Drop as Season Premiere Airs Following Bari Weiss' 'Anti-Woke' Takeover

60 Minutes saw a significant drop in ratings after Bari Weiss' CBS takeover, RadarOnline has learned.

Once a prime-time news institution, preliminary Nielsen figures showed 60 Minutes had its smallest season-premiere audience in years, according to records dating back to at least 2000.

RadarOnline previously reported that a CBS insider claimed the show was already "dead" following its Season 59 premiere, which featured interviews with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an Air Force pilot who had been shot down over Iran.

The anonymous senior CBS News staffer described the revamped program as “some Frankenstein of bits sewn together of mismatched pieces.” Another staffer accused correspondent Norah O’Donnell of being “absolutely willing to play the part of dimwit reporter used as a propaganda tool” during the Hegseth interview.

The show drew about 7.7 million viewers for its season premiere, down 19 percent year over year among total viewers and 33 percent among viewers ages 25 to 54, based on early figures reported by the New York Post. Later, Nielsen figures put the audience at 7.9 million, a 21 percent decline from last year’s premiere.

This season of 60 Minutes is an early test for Weiss’ tenure as CBS News editor-in-chief, following Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of her digital publication, The Free Press, and her appointment to lead CBS News.

Paramount announced the deal in October 2025. The company did not disclose financial terms, but the acquisition was reported to be worth about $150 million.

Weiss joined CBS News as editor-in-chief as part of the deal and reports directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison.

The ratings drop comes after Weiss oversaw a major shake-up at 60 Minutes, including the departure of longtime correspondents Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and the replacement of executive producer Tanya Simon with Nick Bilton, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The weaker ratings also came with a weaker NFL lead-in. The Packers-Vikings game preceding 60 Minutes drew 18.4 million viewers, down 22 percent from the 23.8 million viewers who watched the corresponding game a year earlier.

CNN’s Brian Stelter cited a television executive who called the decline “pretty striking,” while also pointing to the weaker NFL audience and changes to Nielsen’s methodology as factors.

Weiss has made several other unpopular decisions since taking over.

Larry Magid, who worked for CBS News Radio for more than two decades before becoming a contributor in 2020, was among the prominent voices affected by the shift. Magid specifically criticized Weiss' decision to shut down the network’s radio operation.

The 99-year-old CBS News Radio operation reached an estimated 20 million listeners a week, according to Page Six.