Trump, Harris Could Appear In Back-To-Back '60 Minutes' Interviews: Could Paramount Stock Be A 2024 Election Winner?

Long-running news show "60 Minutes" could be getting exclusive interviews with former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Here's how the news show and its parent company could end up media winners with less than 50 days until the 2024 presidential election.

What Happened: Presidential debates have been a key item for the 2024 election with the first debate between Trump and President Joe Biden serving as the potential tipping point for Biden to exit the race. A second debate, between Trump and Harris, marked a potential shift in the election with the current vice president gaining in election polls and betting odds since the Sept. 10 event.

While Harris wants to debate Trump again after being declared the winner by most polls, Trump is not ready to join the CNN debate on Oct. 23.

Trump and Harris might not participate in another debate together, but could be featured in back-to-back interviews on "60 Minutes."

According to a report from Axios, Trump and Harris are both considering taking part in "60 Minutes" interviews that the long-running newsmagazine television show would air back-to-back on Oct. 7.

The report said Harris' campaign is in active talks with the news program and Trump's sources indicated an interview is to be determined.

"I'm confident this is going to work," "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Bill Owens told the Associated Press. "For either campaign, it wouldn't be a great look if they turned down an opportunity to be on '60 Minutes.'"

While the interviews wouldn't feature the same elements of a debate with rebuttals to opponents, they could feature the same questions and topics and allow viewers a chance to get more ideas on their candidate ahead of the 2024 election. The interviews would likely feature different interviewers with the report indicating Scott Pelley was assigned to Trump and Bill Whitaker was assigned to Harris.

Whitaker interviewed Harris last year, with Harris featured in a past interview with the news program in October 2023. Trump was interviewed by the news program in 2020, but became upset by interviewer Lesley Stahl and cut the interview short.

The Oct. 7 date would be less than one month before election day.

Did You Know?

• Congress Is Making Huge Investments. Get Tips On What They Bought And Sold Ahead Of The 2024 Election With Our Easy-to-Use Tool

Why It's Important: If there are no more television debates between Trump and Harris and "60 Minutes" lands the two interviews, Paramount could end up a big winner in the final stretch of the 2024 election.

The media company will host the vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. J.D. Vance (R – Ohio) on Oct. 1 and would air the interviews less than a week later.

September's debate between Trump and Harris was watched by 67.1 million people, topping the 51.3 million from June's Trump and Biden debate. ABC hosted the debate and CBS News saw 6.2 million viewers of its simulcast broadcast, trailing ABC, NBC, Fox News and MSNBC viewership.

A 2020 episode of "60 Minutes" that featured the infamous Trump interview mentioned above and an interview with Biden was watched by 17.4 million people, setting the news program's biggest viewership in over two years.

Interviews for Trump and Harris would likely draw strong ratings for "60 Minutes" and come on a day that is already strong thanks to National Football League viewership.

CBS airs one to two NFL games each Sunday, alternating with Fox Corp. which gets the double header of two games.

For Oct. 7, CBS would air one game at 1 p.m. ET with the following games airing across the country during that time slot nationally. CBS would also air a second game at 4 p.m. ET in select markets. "60 Minutes" would likely air at 7:30 p.m. ET or at the conclusion of the NFL games for the week.

NFL games are averaging 19.7 million viewers through the first two weeks, up 12% year-over-year. CBS had the second most watched contest through the first two weeks with the Week 2 Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs game averaging 27.9 million viewers.

CBS would likely dominate the Sunday ratings thanks to NFL and the 2024 election special and could have opportunities to package advertising plans for both events or potentially for the vice presidential debate and the "60 Minutes" special.

PARA Price Action: Paramount stock trades at $10.48 versus a 52-week trading range of $9.54 to $17.50. Paramount stock is down 27% year-to-date in 2024.

Check This Out:

• Lawmakers Made Huge Investments This Year. Get Tips On What They Bought And Sold Ahead Of The 2024 Election With Our Easy-to-Use Tool

Photo: Shutterstock