“60 Minutes'” much promoted interview with Walter Isaacson about his biography Steve Jobs was the 14th most-watched show of the week (12.6 million viewers). That may have disappointed some inside CBS. Sunday’s show included a two-part interview with Isaacson and a Lesley Stahl story on how the iPad is helping give a voice to autistic children. What makes “60 Minutes” a consistently Top 10 show — beyond its high quality content — is the lead-in of NFL football. This past Sunday, CBS did not have a football lead in. In fact, over on FOX, the Packers-Vikings game, which ran until about 7:22pmET was the most-watched show of the week, topping anything in primetime. The game drew 24.3 million Total Viewers vs. the #1 primetime show, NCIS, which drew 19.4 million. The Packers-Vikings game was followed by The OT (14.7M) and game four of the World Series (15.2M).
Increasingly, and especially with the Jobs interview, CBS can count on hundreds of thousands more views of the show on CBSNews.com.
This Sunday’s “60” should fare better. The show, which will have a Morley Safer interview with Ruth Madoff and her son, will have the Patriots-Steelers game as its lead-in in much of the country.