President Donald Trump’s first “60 Minutes” interview since his $16 million settlement with CBS News boosted the newsmagazine to its biggest audience since 2021.
Sunday’s broadcast of the interview drew 14 million viewers, according to Nielsen big data plus panel ratings information, its highest viewership since Jan. 10, 2021 and up 71% year-over-year. The interview also scored 3 million viewers in the key demo among adults 25-54, up 133% from last year.
The interview boosted “60 Minutes” to rank as TV’s No. 1 non-sports primetime program for the week. Sunday’s “60 Minutes” also tallied up 144.9 million total video views across the show’s social platforms — up from last week’s all-time high of 92.6 million views.
Six weeks into the season, “60 Minutes” is currently up 12% in viewers and up 20% in the demo, compared to last year.
Sunday’s interview was the president’s first sit-down with “60 Minutes” in five years. He heavily scrutinized former Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance on the show in 2024, suing CBS for $20 billion for “deceptively editing” the interview to favor the Democratic presidential candidate. Paramount later reached a $16 million settlement, including “plaintiffs’ fees and costs” and a donation to a future presidential library.
Trump was interviewed by CBS’s Norah O’Donnell Friday at Mar-a-Lago for 90 minutes, which was then edited down to 28 minutes for its Sunday airing. They later released a 73-minute long extended version online and posted a full transcript.
Critics, including elected officials and other journalists, took issue with how the interview was conducted. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he planned to scrutinize Trump’s heavily edited interview, using the exact same language the president lodged against Harris. Former MSNBC host Joy Reid called out O’Donnell for letting Trump lie without pushing back or fact-checking.
The president praised David Ellison for bringing on Bari Weiss to run CBS News in the interview, saying the new ownership is “the greatest thing” to happen to the network in a long time.
“’60 Minutes’ paid me a lotta money,” he told O’Donnell. “And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not — you have a great— I think you have a great new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise, is a great— from what I know.”
Trump’s last appearance before that on “60 Minutes” was in 2020, with correspondent Lesley Stahl – which he abruptly ended. The president stayed put for the entirety of his interview this time around.
