Ever wonder how 60 Minutes was doing so well in the ratings? No? Is that because you had no idea that 60 Minutes was doing well in the ratings? Someone needs to keep better track of Nielsen scores, my friend.
CBS' news show is currently ranked in the 9th spot in television programs, reaching the top 10 for the first time since 2000. And yes, some of it may have to do with the Michelle/Barack interview last week, which brought in viewers in droves to watch Steve Kroft's interview with the president-elect and his wife.
But the numbers, 15.7 million each week, can't be explained alone by Obama fans and your grandparents. No, the real reason 60 Minutes and Andy Rooney have hit such a stride during the last couple months is: there simply is no more competition for the newsmagazine format on television.
Call it winning by boredom: when stations figured out they could cull bigger numbers from programs besides 20/20 and Dateline, they did just that, leaving the perfect 60 Minute-shaped hole to be filled by CBS' programming. And all the exciting comedies and dramas that these stations show in lieui of 20/20 reruns? They are all taking a major hit in the ratings as too many choices, along with online streaming and DVR playback oversaturate the entertainment market.
Most of the other programs rounding out the Nielsen Top 10 — including “CSI,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” — have lost hundreds of thousands of viewers since last year. Meanwhile the other broadcast networks have largely forsaken the newsmagazine business, including NBC, which once showed as many as four episodes of “Dateline” a week.
Think about it: you wouldn't think twice about watching The Office on Hulu or a streaming site, but the people who watch 60 Minutes kick it old school. That means better, and more accurate ratings, meaning a higher score, meaning that 60 Minutes, a show that no one watches, is now one of the most watched shows in America.
I don't consider myself old at age 38 but then again I'm a white male between the ages of 18-45 so I'm still got a few more years in the desired target market. More importantly I watch 60 minutes and have as I'm a news junkie. I do tivo it and sometimes skip one of the three stories.
Back in the day of Hugh Downs I was a fan of 20/20 also. And of course I watched my share of Primetime Lives, Dateline and 48 Hours. But somewhere in time those shows tended to be more entertainment than actual news worthy. Slowly dateline turned into catch a creep with gotcha journalism at it's worse.
60 Minutes will be around forever as it really is now the only magazine news show on network television. With tv moving in cycles at some point we will be awash in a sea of new news magazines but at the rate the media is going it will be more like TMZ and Perez Hilton.
The fact that ABC and NBC with sinking ratings didn't try to revive the newsmagazine format during an election year shows a lapse in judgement. With ratings up all summer and fall at the 3 cable news networks you'd think they'd try to catch some ratings gold. Then again I don't know if I'd want more Obermann and Matthews on my tv.
What was that failed news magazine attempt over at Fox called? And didn't ABC try another magazine show named after a street?
I agree with the previous poster. I am a 34-yr-old female and I long for the news magazine shows of yore. I watch 60 Minutes because it's good journalism - interesting stories that are reported well. There's nothing like that on TV, though 20/20 and Nightline do a pretty good job, though in inconvenient time slots.
NBC's hack fest known as Dateline crashed and burned because they spent all their time on pedophiles and unsolved murder mysteries from the 80s.
A meaty news magazine with relevant, topical stories would get an audience these days - from those people who are burned out on cheesy competition shows and soapy dramas. Where are those smart one-off shows you can just drop into and feel no pressure to follow week after week?