As to 60 Minutes becoming the number one show for the second week in a row, and having the largest audience, 25.1 million, for any hour of TV this year, what do you think is going on?

I think what’s happened is that 60 Minutes without question has established itself as the magazine of record. And as the other newsmagazines have gone totally toward the tabloid direction, 60 Minutes has gone in the totally opposite direction. The best example I can think of is that for two weeks in the past month and half, our lead story was on credit default swaps.

Now if you were to say somebody do you think you can generate a good rating in prime time by leading with stories on credit default swaps, people would say you’re nuts. But those were two incredibly highly rated 60 Minutes pieces. We had three pieces on the Iraqi war this season, and the conventional wisdom is that nobody wants to watch stories in Iraq any more. But those stories were incredibly well rated also.

I just think 60 Minutes has established itself as a must-see program. And the kind of number we had on Sunday just confirms that for us. I’ve always believed no matter what the program is – sports, entertainment or news – if you put on an unbelievably compelling program week after week after week, a lot of people are going to watch it. And I think that is what’s happening on 60 Minutes.

Can you compare 60 Minutes today to other points in its long history?

The brand and the reputation of 60 Minutes, I think, is at an almost all-time high even going back to the glory days when it was the only real news magazine on television. I think what Jeff Fager (executive producer) and the correspondents have done is just remarkable. There a lot of things that are going pretty well at CBS News these days, and this certainly falls in that category.

Sean, during this time of media tumult is there a lesson here for others in the media that says if you have an outstanding product and you stick to your journalistic guns, you’ll be OK business-wise?

That’s a really good point, because there was a lot of temptation at points to say, "Maybe we need do a different kind of show. Maybe we should put graphics in or music. Or maybe we should make it more contemporary." And I have two points to make about that.

One thing that’s remarkable, and I’m not sure a lot of people notice it, is that the show, much to the credit of Jeff and his creative team, is that the show looks vastly different than it did two years ago. I mean, basically, two years ago, the correspondents were sitting literally in front of a cardboard set, and now it’s a three-dimensional magazine. And the graphics used to all be black – and the background was black. Now the background gray. I mean, it’s a very contemporary, modern-looking magazine. It’s the only magazine show in high definition. So, even though it’s a traditional show, being in high def, it really is a state of the art program.

The other thing I must say for a sense of perspective is that two years ago, even though it did not get a lot of attention, 60 Minutes was really facing a crisis. They lost two of the foundations within the span of six months. They lost tragically Ed Bradley who passed away. And they lost Mike Wallace when he retired. So, the two guys who were probably the single most important guys for a decade were all of a sudden gone. I think a lot of magazine shows would have a huge problem. But Jeff said, "Listen, we’re going to keep the current foundation of Steve Kroft, Lesley Stahl and Bob Simon and Andy Rooney and Scott Pelley. But we’re going to inject an Anderson Cooper and a Lara Logan..."

And a Katie Couric

Exactly Katie Couric. … And there are others. Armen Ketayian did an unbelievably great story. And Byron Pitts is going to do two stories this season. So what Jeff’s managed to do is keep the traditional 60 Minutes, so that when you tune in, you’ll see a Steve Kroft or Lesley Stahl. But he’s also started to groom the correspondents for the future. And the fact that we haven’t missed a beat, and in fact are stronger than when the great Ed Bradley and the great Mike Wallace were on the broadcast, I think is an incredible accomplishment.

(Above: CBS Photo of Sean McManus)