{"id":898593,"date":"2026-10-29T09:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898593\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:46:22","slug":"embattled-cbs-leader-bari-weiss-downplays-concerns-about-weak-60-minutes-ratings-cbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898593\/","title":{"rendered":"Embattled CBS leader Bari Weiss downplays concerns about weak 60 Minutes ratings | CBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss<\/a> has spoken publicly for the first time about the ratings challenges the network has experienced under her year-long tenure, sidestepping concerns about diminished viewership at the Sunday show 60 Minutes by saying it was not her top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could never build anything if I were focused on the precise number of people that happen to tune in to the second feature on 60 Minutes on a given Sunday,\u201d she said at an industry conference<\/a> on Wednesday organized by the tech publication the Information. The news organization did not offer press credentials.<\/p>\n

Overall, Weiss said the show was doing \u201ctremendously well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Weiss completely overhauled 60 Minutes in late May, ousting the show\u2019s executive producer and parting ways with three top correspondents, including Scott Pelley. But the show has struggled to even match last season\u2019s viewership, which averaged 9.1 million viewers per episode.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s most recent episode drew just 5.64 million viewers, \u201cone of the smallest audiences for the program in years\u201d, Variety reported<\/a>. The show was the lowest-rated sixth episode of the weekly show this century, a feat also achieved by the fourth episode of the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s ratings are heavily dependent on whether it is preceded by a highly watched NFL football game. Ratings for the show have been low despite a strong run of guest bookings and news-making segments. Viewership hasn\u2019t been all bad, either \u2013 the 4 October edition of the show drew an average of more than 10 million total viewers.<\/p>\n

Weiss was also asked about parent company Skydance\u2019s recent merger with Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of CNN. While Weiss was initially rumored to potentially lead the cable news network, chief executive David Ellison instead opted to keep CNN chief executive Mark Thompson in place \u2013 for the time being, at least.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she might be interested in running CNN, Weiss replied: \u201cI want to focus on doing CBS<\/a> News, trust me. This is a big enough challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss said she is not focused on criticism of her tenure at CBS News, which has come from inside and outside the building. Her strategy has been to \u201cput the blinders on, tune out the noise and focus\u201d, adding: \u201cI\u2019m not doing anything I\u2019m doing for popularity\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has spoken publicly for the first time about the ratings challenges the network…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-898593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}