’60 Minutes’ Scores Best Ratings Since Jan 6 Riot Thanks to New Trump Interview

60 Minutes enjoyed its highest-rated show in more than four years on Sunday, thanks to its new interview with President Donald Trump.

The episode pulled in 13.2 million viewers, according to Axios, the first outlet to report the bombshell numbers on Tuesday, based on an early look at Nielsen data.

And perhaps a bit ironically, that was the most viewers 60 Minutes scored since its Jan. 10, 2021 episode, which came just a few days after the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot. That episode, which included interviews with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, had 14.9 million viewers. Notably, final Nielsen numbers usually tick up a slight bit from early Nielsen data.

Ratings for Sunday’s episode on CBS, which featured correspondent Norah O’Donnell interviewing the president, were up some 19% week-over-week. The Sunday episode also benefited from airing right after a big Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game on CBS.

There were a number of notable moments from the president’s interview, including Trump saying ICE has not “gone far enough” with deporting illegal immigrants. The president also discussed his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Plenty of other standout moments were edited out of the show.

Those included Trump threatening to walk out of the interview, as well as Trump complimenting CBS News on having The Free Press editor Bari Weiss come aboard as its new editor-in-chief; Trump said he did not know Weiss, but that he has heard she is a “great person.” Similarly, Trump applauded Skydance boss David Ellison, saying his recent acquisition of Paramount signaled a great new era for the media business.

The Sunday interview stood out because it was Trump’s first 60 Minutes interview since he sued the program over its editing of a Kamala Harris interview last year. Trump, in one of the unaired segments, gloated about CBS paying him “a lotta money” — $16 million — to settle his lawsuit.

“You don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you,” Trump said about mentioning the settlement.