“60 Minutes” begins the new year happy.
Although broadcast viewership is down, the venerable newsmagazine’s ratings are up 12 percent to 15 percent over last fall, including two No. 1 finishes in November — the first time in five years it’s been the top- rated show.
“People are making it appointment television again,” correspondent Scott Pelley said.
So what’s behind this uptick? Julia Fox, associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, theorizes that viewers, inundated with so many news outlets, don’t want to hunt for information. So they’re returning to a show they’ve been able to rely on for 40 years.
“Everyone jokes about how old the personalities are on ’60 Minutes,’ ” she said, “but the fact is they’ve been in the business for many, many years, and they’re very credible.”
Longtime correspondent Lesley Stahl accepts the compliment about credibility and suggests a couple of other reasons for the resurgent ratings: the public’s appetite for news and explanatory journalism, and the timeliness of the show’s stories this season, including the first major interview with President-elect Barack Obama.
A “60 Minutes” contributor since 1991, Stahl has seen the down times. During the mid-1990s, for instance, the show didn’t have football as its lead-in, which dented its ratings. And the network’s legal department delayed airing an investigation of tobacco giant Brown & Williamson, which diminished its credibility for a time.
“That old saying, ‘Things are better when you’re winning,’ is really true,” Stahl said. “You don’t quibble. It just creates a different environment.”
CBS News president Sean McManus said more viewers are tuning in because “60 Minutes” is doing “important stories.” “It’s not doing pregnant men and it’s not doing prostitutes,” he said. “It’s doing really good reporting.”
McManus credits executive producer Jeff Fager with introducing a contemporary look to “60 Minutes,” partly by refreshing the correspondent pool over the past few years — adding Pelley, Anderson Cooper, Lara Logan, Katie Couric and Charlie Rose to join Morley Safer, Steve Kroft, Bob Simon and Stahl — and also by shooting the introductions to the stories in front of a 3-D magazine rather than a piece of cardboard. “It feels more contemporary, yet it’s retained all the traditional values ’60 Minutes’ has always had,” he said.
Over the next few months, the show plans to report from Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will have more explanatory pieces on the economy, including a Pelley story in which whistle-blowers from the home-loan industry explain predatory lending practices. There will be stories on endangered elephants, violence in Mexico, a profile of actress Kate Winslet and college binge drinking.
“We always think of it as ‘high Murrow’ and ‘low Murrow,’ ” said Fager, a reference to legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow.
“We’ve stuck to our core values here: solid reporting, important stories mixed with good profiles, substance.” The show also tries to stick to creator Don Hewitt’s motto: Tell me a story.
