CBS News’ “60 Minutes” shed some of the viewers it snared during its much-anticipated Season 59 debut as it grappled with the effects of CBS’ football programming on its audience, even as it notched a gain in audience compared to its year-earlier performance.
\n\nThe audience for the second telecast of the venerable newsmagazine rose 5% over last season’s second-week telecast, according to data from Nielsen, rising to nearly 6.77 million, compared with nearly 6.46 million a year ago. Viewership among people between 25 and 54, the demographic desired most by advertisers in news programming, rose 18%, to 1.08 million, compared with 917,000 last year. CBS News was also impressed by social views for the episode, which totaled 179.2 million, compared with 116.7 million for the prior week — a new record for the show.
\n\nNonetheless, linear viewership for the show is down compared to the prior week, when CBS News enjoyed a national NFL lead-in that helped boost the initial audience for the program.
\n\nAnd the numbers are below last season’s average. The overall audience for “60 Minutes” last season was 8.16 million, according to Nielsen, and 1.32 million in the 25-to-54 demographic.
\n\nCBS News remains under intense pressure to…
Original source: https://variety.com/