While most of America tuned into last night’s thrilling Divisional Round game between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears on NBC, CBS used the opportunity to thwart weeks of bad press for its embattled news division.
On Sunday morning, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that, after weeks of delay due to a unilateral decision by new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, 60 Minutes would air its “Inside CECOT” segment detailing the horrifying conditions inside the El Salvadorian prison where hundreds of migrants were deported from the United States under a Trump administration initiative.
The story was shelved by Weiss nearly a month ago after the editor-in-chief controversially determined the 60 Minutes crew working on the piece had not gone to great enough lengths to get the Trump administration on the record for the piece. CBS had promoted the story in the days leading up to its originally scheduled premier, which would have aired immediately following an NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions. That game, many will recall, came down to the final play and averaged 28.54 million viewers, which was CBS’s most-watched national window since the network returned to NFL broadcasting in 1998.
In other words, 60 Minutes would have benefited from a massive NFL lead-in that day. The show has traditionally used NFL lead-ins to highlight its best stories, and “Inside CECOT” was no exception.
Fast-forward to Sunday, Jan. 18. CBS decided, seemingly out of nowhere, that Sunday was the perfect time to air the segment. The story received no promotion having been slotted in so late, and not-so-coincidentally aired directly against the Rams-Bears Divisional Round game on NBC. The NFL game was tied 7-7 in the second quarter when “Inside CECOT” aired on CBS.
Divisional Round games in the late-Sunday window are generally the most-watched of the weekend. The past two seasons, that window has earned 42.2 million viewers (2025 Ravens-Bills) and 50.4 million viewers (2024 Chiefs-Bills). One can expect Sunday’s Rams-Bears game to approach or eclipse the 5o-million-viewer threshold, especially given the updated Nielsen methodologies.
A portion of those 50 million viewers might have watched 60 Minutes on another night when the show wasn’t facing direct NFL competition. But it seems that burying the story against a massive audience was the point.
CBS has endured weeks of bad press surrounding its news division. From shelving “Inside CECOT” for what seemed to be politically motivated reasons, to new CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil’s less-than-stellar debut, Sunday night provided a unique opportunity to end at least one vector of poor publicity.
That seems abundantly clear when considering the “Inside CECOT” story did not receive any editorial changes between its originally scheduled Dec. 21 release and Sunday’s actual release. We know this because the story was mistakenly shipped out to one of 60 Minutes‘ Canadian partners in December, and the segment was available to stream in full just one day after this controversy began to unfold. The segment that aired Sunday was exactly the same, aside from a rerecorded intro from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi to note that further efforts had been made to get the Trump administration on the record.
CBS saw an opportunity to bury the piece and took it. And there’s few more apt opportunities to completely torpedo a story than against an NFL game that, in all likelihood, will be a top-5 television audience of 2026.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.