Ross Douthat’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview Gets Tackled By Football Comparisons

Ross Douthat was dynamite. The ratings — potentially less so.

The new “60 Minutes” correspondent garnered many huzzahs for his interlocution of President Donald Trump on the show’s Sunday telecast, but viewership tied to the show fell notably from the previous week and from the year-earlier episode, both of which were boosted by NFL lead-ins.

Even so, there is some cause for cheer. In a season when the show has faced challenges luring viewers without an NFL game before it, the ratings were the highest generated without a football telecast to help kick things off.

Douthat peppered Trump not only with questions tied to the loss Republicans suffered in the recent midterm elections, but also stopped him with inquiries about whether the president felt he would go to heaven or hell, and whether he could refrain from taunting and insulting his opponents it it means doing something for the greater good of the nation.

The literati noticed, with notables like Fox News commentator Brit Hume and CNN media analyst Brian Stelter praising Douthat’s interview.

But the show’s audience for its eighth episode of the season fell to 7.8 million viewers overall, and 918,000 between the ages of 25 and 54 — the demographic coveted most by advertisers. The overall figure marked a 26% decline from the previous week, when an NFL football game airing before the show drove 11 million viewers to the program. And the demo audience tumbled 69% from the previous year, when the show won nearly 2 million viewers between 25 and 54.

The numbers are also down from the same episode from the previous week, when the telecast lured an average of nearly 10.5 million overall and 2.23 million in the demo — representing declines of 30% and 59%, respectively.

Both the week-earlier and season-earlier episodes were lifted by NFL games that aired ahead of the first tick of the “60 Minutes” stopwatch. Sunday’s program was not.

CBS News remains under intense pressure to demonstrate stability at “60,” which was overhauled in haphazard fashion at the end of last season, despite mustering a notable 9% uptick in overall viewership. Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor in chief, ousted Tanya Simon, an executive producer with years of history working at the show, in favor of Nick Bilton, a journalist and screenwriter with less formal TV experience. Also pushed out were correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Anderson Cooper left of his own volition following the end of his contract. Their replacements, which include Douthat and contributors like Ariel Levy and Sebastian Junger, have top-shelf backgrounds, but also little experience working on a weekly TV program that emphasizes long-form enterprise journalism.

Sunday’s telecast also included an appearance by Trevor Phillips, who was recently named senior global affairs correspondent for CBS News. He interviewed far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen amid protests by French citizens.