’60 Minutes’ ratings fall 41% without NFL lead-in as Lesley Stahl report sparks controversy

CBS News‘ “60 Minutes” lost more than 4 million viewers in its latest broadcast, recording its smallest audience of the season as the program aired without the benefit of the NFL lead-in that helped lift its ratings a week earlier.

The Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, edition averaged 6.06 million viewers, down approximately 41% from the 10.2 million who watched the Oct. 4 broadcast, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel ratings.

The program also attracted 767,000 adults ages 25-54, a decline of approximately 62% from the previous week’s 2 million viewers in the demographic.

The fourth episode of the newsmagazine’s 59th season also fell below its comparable broadcast a year earlier, declining 12% in total viewers and 19% among adults 25-54. The results represented the smallest fourth-episode audience for “60 Minutes” in at least 25 years.

The week-to-week decline coincided with a change in CBS’s Sunday football schedule.

The Oct. 4 broadcast followed a heavily watched NFL game, providing a substantial audience for the newsmagazine. The following week, CBS did not have a comparable national late-afternoon football lead-in, while competing NFL coverage aired on other networks.

That difference makes the week-to-week comparison less useful as a measure of the program’s editorial performance. “60 Minutes” has historically experienced substantial ratings fluctuations depending on the football games preceding it, with NFL audiences frequently carrying over into the newsmagazine’s opening minutes.

The year-over-year decline, however, provides another measure of the program’s performance. The Oct. 11 broadcast was down nearly 1 million viewers from the corresponding episode in 2025, even as CBS News continues to promote changes to the program’s production and editorial leadership.

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The latest ratings also arrived as CBS News faced reports of an internal dispute involving veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss over a report examining violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Stahl report prompts editorial disagreements

Stahl’s investigation, which aired during the Oct. 11 broadcast, examined the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and allegations involving Israeli settlers.

According to reporting by the New York Post, Variety and Status, the segment reportedly became the subject of contentious discussions between Stahl, Weiss and CBS News Deputy Editor Charles Forelle during the final stages of production.

The disagreements reportedly involved proposed edits and questions about whether the report should air as scheduled.

Stahl resisted changes she believed would compromise her reporting, according to accounts attributed to people familiar with the discussions.

The dispute reportedly became heated enough that Stahl considered leaving the program, although subsequent reporting indicated she had no plans to resign.

CBS News disputed characterizations of the confrontation, describing reports about Stahl potentially leaving as exaggerated and defending the editorial review process.

The segment ultimately aired as scheduled, although the behind-the-scenes disagreements reportedly delayed some of the network’s promotional activity.