Can Stormy Daniels Help 60 Minutes Ratings?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:05AM EST · Published Mar 26, 6:45AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Can Stormy Daniels Help 60 Minutes Ratings? — © Thinkstock

The 60 Minutes interview of porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump, is what is called “must-see TV.” Undoubtedly swarms of Americans watched the segment, with the Q&A conducted by popular TV newsman Andersen Cooper. 60 Minutes could use the boost, particularly if interest in the show remains high after the Stormy Daniels conversation

60 Minutes remains the most watched news program on television. It is well ahead of any other TV news magazine or evening news broadcast. However, it is well behind TV’s most popular programs.

For the week of March 12, according to Nielsen, 60 Minutes had 1.87 million views in the coveted 18 to 49 age bracket. That put it in 13th place overall. Two NCAA tournament games were ahead of it. So were reality shows The Voice, American Idol and Survivor. Several dramas also beat it. These include NCIS, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy and, in first place, This Is Us, which was watched by 3.58 million people in the 18 to 49 age bracket.

Barely behind 60 Minutes were two other NCAA tournament games and Law & Order: SUV.

[nativounit]

60 Minutes is 50 years old, having celebrated the anniversary late last year. In the late 1970s, throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, it was often ranked as the number one, two or three rated show each week. However, it has lost its gifted founding producer Don Hewitt and early stars, which included Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, Diane Sawyer and Morley Safer. With the departure of these journalists, the show lost some of its weight and punch.

It may take a porn star to get 60 Minutes back on track. That is, if viewers decide to watch again next weekend, when she has moved on to something else.

[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.