Stormy Daniels’ tell-all interview with 60 Minutes‘ Anderson Cooper helped CBS win Sunday night TV ratings.
The highly anticipated sitdown, which got a late start due to the NCAA basketball game between Duke and Kansas, reaped strong rewards for the network, with 21.3 million viewers tuning in to listen as the adult film star discussed her alleged affair with President Donald Trump. The program, currently sitting at a 4.0 rating in adults 18-49, more than doubled both measures from last week and earned the title as the most-watched and highest-rated episode of the season.
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The 60 Minutes interview, which saw Daniels confirm a laundry list of details viewers had been speculating about for months — including that she had sex with now-President Donald Trump, she spanked him during the encounter, did it to get on Celebrity Apprentice and that she and her daughter were physically threatened after giving an interview about the affair to In Touch magazine — earned a 16.3 rating in Nielsen metered market households, according to Variety. That number makes it the best household rating for the show since the 2008 interview with Barack Obama shortly after he was elected President, which saw nearly 25 million viewers tuning in.
Coming in second place for the night, ABC earned 1.2 demo rating and saw 14.1 million viewers tuning in. American Idol‘s (7.4 million/1.7) third Sunday outing was even with last week’s numbers. America’s Funniest Home Videos (5.3 million/0.9) and Deception (4 million/0.8) also held steady week to week.
On NBC, Little Big Shots (5.9 million/0.9), Genius Junior (4.2 million/0.9), and Timeless (2.6 million/0.6) were all down.
Fox’s The Simpsons ticked up in the demo with a 1.0 rating and earned 2.1 million viewers. Bob’s Burgers (1.7 million/0.8), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.9 million/0.9), and Last Man on Earth (1.6 million/0.7) were all even. Family Guy was down slightly, with a 0.9 and 1.9 million viewers.