60 Minutes’ blockbuster interview with Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, failed to provide a major ratings boost for the Sunday show, according to audience figures released Tuesday.

Sunday night’s episode of the newsmagazine show drew an average of 6.77m total viewers, the third-smallest audience in the past 25 years for the second episode of a season, adding to a disappointing debut for Bari Weiss, who, as CBS editor-in-chief, rewired the show, firing several high-profile correspondents in the run-up to the new season.

The 59th season debuted on 13 September with an audience down sharply from the 58th season debut, drawing 7.94 million viewers compared with 10 million for last season’s first episode.

That episode was the show’s lowest-rated season debut in the 21st century, though CBS News touted it as the most-watched non-sports program of the week and released a statement expressing satisfaction with the content of the program. “We are so proud of the exceptional journalism on display in our season premiere and we can’t wait to bring our audience another amazing show this coming Sunday,” the network said last week.

The 20 September episode of the show barely edged last season’s second episode (6.45 million viewers), and it was likely hurt by not having NFL football as a lead-in program in all markets. But it featured what should have been an audience-boosting interview, with new correspondent Ross Douthat sitting down with Patrick Clancy, who described the killings of his children and the aftermath. Clancy’s new wife, fertility doctor Rachel Danis, also gave a brief interview.

In a nod to the interview’s cultural significance and importance for the show, Weiss was in attendance for the conversation, sources said. The show also featured a timely segment on pushback against datacenters reported by correspondent Norah O’Donnell, along with a whodunnit piece from longtime sports-focused correspondent Jon Wertheim about Shergar, an Irish racehorse kidnapped in the 1980s.

While Douthat’s interview with Clancy received generally favorable reviews, it evidently was not the ratings draw that CBS News executives had hoped. The show’s debut episode had also featured a blockbuster interview, with one of the American fighter pilots shot down over Iran in April.

The Guardian has reached out to CBS News about Sunday’s ratings.

On a positive note for the network, the episode attracted 179.2m social views, surpassing last week’s record of 116.7m views.