It has been a year since Bari Weiss has taken the reins at CBS News. Since then, the network’s news programs have seen a number of changes, with the overhaul at 60 Minutes especially making headlines. Recently, ratings for the show’s most recent season have gotten a few figures weighing in.
60 Minutes Recently Released Season 59 Amid The Long-Running News Program’s Overhaul
Weiss became the editor-in-chief of CBS News back in October 2025. This followed Skydance Media, which had become Paramount’s new parent company, acquiring her media startup, The Free Press.
At the time, Weiss had no prior experience with television. Around a year later, viewers have seen a number of changes occur at the network.
One show that has especially been impacted is 60 Minutes. In the time since, a few figures have exited the program of their own accord, such as Anderson Cooper.
However, other figures were fired from the news show. These include Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, Tanya Simon, and Draggan Mihailovich.
Currently, the series is in its 59th season, which made its debut on September 13, 2026. According to Nielsen data obtained by Status, it was recently reported that the season’s fifth episode drew around 9.6 million total viewers.
Reports Claim That Football Isn’t To Blame For The Difference In Ratings
This marked around a 14% drop from the same episode last year, which brought in around 11.1 million viewers. The outlet noted that this couldn’t be blamed on the NFL lead-in. The Buffalo Bills–Las Vegas Raiders game averaged 26.5 million viewers heading into the news program.
This was actually up from 25.3 million for last year’s game. This also means a 64% drop in viewers between the NFL broadcast and 60 Minutes.
According to the outlet, “It’s another bad sign for Bari Weiss, who radically overhauled the show with the promise of improving its performance. Instead, so far this season, she’s lucky to match the previous year’s ratings.”
As the statement continued, “It’s like taking apart a perfectly functioning Ferrari to make it even faster. Only to put it back together and discover [it’s] actually slower than before.”
According to The Daily Beast, Jeremy Adler, the Senior Vice President of Communications at CBS News, spoke positively of the episode. As shared in a statement, “This week’s 60 Minutes was the week’s #1 news program across viewers, adults 18+ and adults 25-54, and was the week’s #1 non-sports primetime program in viewers and adults 18+ for the fourth time this season.”
What is your reaction to this recent development? Have you been following this story? Are you keeping up with this new season of 60 Minutes? Make sure you come back to TV Shows Ace for all the latest TV and celebrity news.
John Witiw has been a writer since at least 2015. He’s covered a variety of topics, especially when it comes to film and television.