60 Minutes was the most-watched show on prime-time television last week and No. 3 across all of TV, only behind the ABC and NBC evening newscasts.
Sunday’s broadcast marks the third time that 60 Minutes has been No. 1 for the week in prime time, delivering 9.7 million viewers on April 12.
The broadcast will go down in 60 Minutes lore. Peter Navarro, trade adviser for the Trump White House who has been tasked with coordinating the response to the coronavirus, defended the Trump administration’s pandemic response by angrily challenging Bill Whitaker to show him when the broadcast had covered pandemic preparations under previous administrations.
The 60 Minutes team accepted the challenge. After the Navarro-Whitaker interview aired, the team went back into its archives, and “showed the receipts,” so to speak. The broadcast had indeed covered responses to previous pandemics. Proof of past pandemic coverage in 2005 and 2009 was shown on 60 Minutes Overtime, and it has garnered more than 3 million views to date, a record for the digital companion program.
Peter Navarro, the White House official tasked with coordinating national PPE supplies, challenged 60 Minutes to show him our past reporting on pandemics. In 2005, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned 60 Minutes the nation wasn’t prepared for a pandemic. https://t.co/6Vg0pdgICE pic.twitter.com/Rg3LDwvLkI
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 13, 2020
Lastly, 60 Minutes senior producer Matt Polevoy, who runs 60 Minutes Overtime, is presently on the mend after having contracted the coronavirus. He took a moment to thank the staff at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
Last month, I got COVID-19 and it was bad. I spent 10 days @NYPBrooklyn.
Today, I got to thank the team that helped save my life. The grace and compassion with which they cared for me is something I will never forget. Thank you, Methodist Infill 4. #HealthcareHeroes pic.twitter.com/1CdQsVWuND
— Matthew Polevoy (@mattpol) April 14, 2020