‘60 Minutes’ Draws Smallest 4th-Episode Audience in 25 Years

Skip to content The CBS newsmagazine’s ratings fell 12% from a year ago, following an NFL-boosted rebound October 14, 2026 @ 1:39 PM Credit: Mark Seliger / CBS News CBS News’ “60 Minutes” averaged 6.06 million viewers Sunday, down 12% from a year earlier, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel ratings, as the newsmagazine’s audience fell following an NFL-boosted rebound the previous week. The Oct. 11 broadcast also drew 767,000 adults 25–54, down 19% from the comparable episode last season. The numbers marked the program’s smallest audience in both measures through the first four episodes of its 59th season. The decline came just a week after “60 Minutes” drew 10.2 million viewers, its largest audience since March. But the Oct. 4 broadcast benefited from CBS’ NFL coverage, making a direct week-to-week comparison difficult. Sunday’s episode aired at 7 p.m. without a national NFL lead-in, facing competition from a Fox football game and NBC’s “Football Night in America,” which began at 7:26 p.m. The broadcast nevertheless gained viewers during the hour, with its audience growing 15% from beginning to end, compared with +2% for the corresponding episode last season, according to Nielsen panel data. The newsmagazine opened its 59th season with 7.94 million viewers, down 21% from a year earlier. Its second episode drew 6.77 million, up 5% year over year. The fourth episode of the 2025 season drew 6.9 million viewers and 946,000 adults 25–54, according to Nielsen. The comparable episode in 2022 averaged 7.62 million viewers and 1.04 million in the demographic. “60 Minutes” ranked 28th for the week in total viewers, behind CBS dramas “Tracker” (7.35 million) and “Marshals” (6.93 million), according to Nielsen’s Live+Same Day rankings. Weekday evening newscasts ABC’s “World News Tonight” averaged 8.22 million viewers across four telecasts, while NBC’s “Nightly News” averaged 6.48 million across four broadcasts. Sunday’s episode featured reports on the Secret Service, settler violence in the West Bank and musician Jon Batiste.