Stormy Daniels on air: Big ratings, cool reaction

LOS ANGELES — An interview with Stormy Daniels delivered for “60 Minutes,” giving the longrunning CBS news magazine its highest ratings in a decade. But the story wasn’t a slam dunk, either in the reaction it produced or getting on the air in the first place.

An estimated 22 million viewers tuned in Sunday to see the adult film star tell “60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump and the aftermath.

“I think people thought there was going to be a smoking gun here. Did we miss something?” Whoopi Goldberg asked Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, Monday on ABC’s “The View.”

Avenatti responded that Daniels’ account of being threatened to keep quiet about the affair represents a “big, big accusation” and a “critical” fact.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” said the report included meaningful aspects of Daniels’ story, including what the $130,000 payment to her by Trump attorney Michael Cohen might mean in the context of federal campaign rules.

Daniels received the money days before the 2016 presidential election and is seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed. Cohen has said he made the payment out of his pocket while asserting Trump never had sex with the porn actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

“I do think people probably had an expectation there would be more details of the affair, for example, which is not something we do at ’60 Minutes,’” Fager told The Associated Press. “We told her story in one part, and we examined why it matters in another.”