The controversial "Inside CECOT" report finally aired on CBS's 60 Minutes this past weekend, but it did so to a dramatically diminished audience, drawing record-low ratings as it went head-to-head with a major NFL playoff game. Critics and media observers have suggested that CBS News leadership, including editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, deliberately scheduled the long-delayed segment for a broadcast that was destined for poor viewership, effectively burying a story that had generated significant negative press for the network.
A Controversial Delay and a Quiet Broadcast
Weeks after Weiss controversially spiked the 60 Minutes investigation into Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration to the violent El Salvador prison complex known as CECOT, she granted final approval for its broadcast. The report, filed by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, remained largely unchanged from its original form but was bookended with new remarks from Alfonsi noting that Trump administration officials had declined interview requests.
The timing of the broadcast, however, raised immediate eyebrows. It was scheduled for a Sunday evening slot where 60 Minutes found itself competing directly with a highly anticipated NFL divisional playoff matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Chicago Bears. Compounding the challenge, the newsmagazine did not have its customary NFL game as a lead-in, a factor that typically boosts its audience.
Abysmal Ratings Against the NFL
According to data from Nielsen Media Research, the telecast attracted a paltry 4.911 million total viewers, with just 442,000 in the key advertising demographic of adults aged 25-54. This performance stands in stark contrast to the previous new airing of 60 Minutes on January 4, which averaged 8.339 million viewers overall and 1.566 million in the demo.
The figures represent a catastrophic decline. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, Sunday night's broadcast was down 45 percent in total viewership and a staggering 72 percent in the critical 25-54 demographic. For the 2025 season, the storied news program has averaged 7.944 million total viewers and 1.273 million in the key demo, meaning Sunday's airing suffered a double-digit slide in both categories.
In fact, this broadcast marked only the second time in the program's history that a 60 Minutes episode, under any title, has drawn fewer than 5 million viewers.
A Strategic Burial?
The decision to air the report on this particular night has led to widespread accusations that CBS sought to minimise its impact. "CBS saw an opportunity to bury the piece and took it," noted Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing. "And there's few more apt opportunities to completely torpedo a story than against an NFL game that, in all likelihood, will be a top-5 television audience of 2026."
The network appeared to anticipate the low ratings, strategically re-coding the program as a special titled 60 Minutes Presents. This technical manoeuvre, also used by other networks, ensures that the abysmal ratings from this broadcast will not negatively affect the official season average for the flagship 60 Minutes programme. Even with this classification, Sunday's airing underperformed compared to the two other 60 Minutes Presents broadcasts in the past year, which averaged 6.248 million total viewers.
Internal Strife and Political Allegations
The controversy surrounding the CECOT report has ignited a firestorm within CBS News. Weiss initially pulled the segment at the last minute in December, claiming it was "not ready" due to a lack of on-the-record input from the Trump administration, despite the report having been screened internally five times and cleared by network lawyers and standards practices.
Her decision sparked internal fury. In a memo to colleagues, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi suggested the move was politically motivated, writing, "In my view, pulling it now – after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one." Weiss, who has been accused of steering CBS News in a more "MAGA-friendly" direction, defended her actions as necessary for a "comprehensive and fair" report.
The internal strife reportedly led to plummeting morale at 60 Minutes, with expectations of a staff revolt. Hours before the report finally aired, Weiss conducted background briefings with several journalists, during which she expressed significant frustration with Alfonsi for declining to make changes to the piece, as reported by Oliver Darcy of Status News.
Ultimately, the segment aired largely as originally intended, but to a fraction of its typical audience. The episode's record-low ratings against the backdrop of the NFL playoffs have cemented the narrative that a controversial story, after a turbulent journey to air, was quietly ushered onto screens when the fewest possible people were watching.
