Media Monday: 60’s Bari Minimum & The Maine Ad Buy Bonanza

Jon Kelly (0:00)

Do ratings matter? Sure, yes, but also we're moving into a new format and platform world where the way we traditionally measure engagement is gonna be upended.

Peter Hamby (0:11)

Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby.

It's Monday, September 21st. Today, I'm joined by Jon Kelly to break down all the criticism and scrutiny on the new look of 60 Minutes, which suffered a ratings decline in its season debut under Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton. Was it their editorial choices that did it? Was the NFL's fault? Nielsen? The answer, like much in modern media, is complicated. Jon and I also reveal some new data about how much campaigns and super PACs and dark money groups are spending on TV and streaming ads this midterm cycle, and how small town TV stations are getting rich in the process.

We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.

Happy Monday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. If it's Monday, it's Media Monday. I'm joined by the boss man, Jon Kelly. We're going to talk about 60 Minutes. Their ratings decline in their debut. What's attributing to that? All the criticism coming from familiar corners of Bari Weiss, Nick Bilton, the whole new crew over there at CBS. Our colleague Dylan Byers has obviously been writing about that. Other media newsletter writers have opinions. Shocker. We're also going to talk about all the television ad spending that's happening this midterm year. I had a piece come out last night, Jon, for In the Best and the Brightest.

Jon Kelly (2:01)

Brilliant.

Peter Hamby (2:06)

About how the spending this year could cross $12 billion. That would be more than the last presidential election. A lot of it is being funded by outside groups, and they're bombarding tiny little towns like bucolic Presque Isle, Maine with millions of dollars of television ads. I feel so bad for people that live in these seven or eight Senate states.

It's really tough. Anyway, let's start with 60 Minutes. I'm going to read to you from one of our media writer friends, somebody that we both know and really like about the debut of 60 Minutes. By the way, we're taping this before last night's edition of 60 Minutes. With the Clancy interview looking like 48 hours, more than 60 Minutes, that'll probably help their ratings.

Jon Kelly (2:52)

We'll see what the ratings are.

Peter Hamby (2:53)

We'll see what the ratings are. Anyway. So the headline around 60 Minutes, their debut, their season debut under Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton, is that under 8 million people watched last Sunday's season premiere. That's about a 20% drop from the previous year. Viewership, by the way, for the NFL was about the same. An important note about the 60 Minutes audience is that the audience fell over the course of the broadcast when it kicked off with Norah O'Donnell's really riveting interview with Bravo, the US serviceman that was shot down over Iran and then rescued. That started out with like 9.5 million viewers. By the end of the show when Ross Douthat was doing a PBS segment about AI, they were getting like 6 million viewers. I guess people tuned out during the RAM section. The NFL lead-in part is very important. That Packard's Vikings game was a dud. Nielsen has the damnedest ratings.

Kyler Murray, Jesus. I mean, anyone who picked him on their fantasy team.

Jon Kelly (3:53)

He should have been a Jett. We can sidebar on that.

Peter Hamby (3:57)

Anyway, here is a passage from one of our media writer friends that we both know. Critics of Miss Weiss were quick to attribute Sunday's decline in ratings to her decision-making. But television ratings are contingent on many factors. In most of the country, 60 Minutes airs immediately after NFL games, and ratings often fluctuate depending on the matchup that precedes the show. Ahead of last year's premiere, CBS had the NFL's marquee late afternoon game to itself.

This past Sunday, CBS and Fox both aired games that kicked off at the same time. That competition contributed to a drop in viewership for CBS's late afternoon football, which drew about 22% fewer viewers than a year ago. Who wrote that?

Not Dylan Byers, our pal Michael Grinbaum over at the New York Times.

Jon Kelly (4:44)

Oh, Grinney. Everyone likes that guy.

Peter Hamby (4:46)

And the point of bringing that up is that he's right. This is a nuanced thing. I personally believe the show suffered a little bit in quality compared to the previous regime. That's just me. I'm sure a lot of other viewers agree. But look, Dylan wrote a piece about this, essentially saying the same thing. And people were criticizing him on Twitter or whatever for being pro-Bari, even though Dylan and I, on this podcast, have had many conversations that have been extremely critical of Nick Bilton and Bari Weiss, etc. So look, losing that many viewers compared to last year is not a great sign. Maybe this Clancy interview will jump ratings. I think some of the story selection the first week was good. I think some was bad. I think they made some weird decisions. I think the Ross Douthat thing is strange, especially when JoLynn Kent also at CBS News is interviewing David Sacks and Dario Amadei about AI. I don't need a Ross Douthat essay about AI.