How to Watch the 60 Minutes Without Cable

There are a lot of news programs on TV, but there’s only one 60 Minutes. Since the 1960s, CBS’s hourlong program has been the gold standard in news-magazine style television news. There’s a lot of flashy nonsense on cable these days, but 60 Minutes still puts in the reporting legwork, and it shows. If you consider 60 Minutes to be must-watch TV, then you may have a dilemma: How can you cut the cord without giving up watching the show? Is there a way to watch 60 Minutes without cable?

As it turns out, there is a way — a few different ways, in fact. Below, we’ll lay out everything that you need to know about how to watch 60 Minutes without cable, including details on getting yourself a safe (and legal) 60 Minutes livestream online as well as information on how to watch 60 Minutes free with an antenna — no cable required!

How to Watch 60 Minutes Online and Over the Air Without Cable

So how can you watch 60 Minutes without cable? You can sometimes find 60 Minutes segments on CBS’s website or on YouTube, but what we’re after here is a way to watch 60 Minutes right as it airs, so that we’re watching the same full program that the rest of the cable-watching nation is seeing. How do we do that?

To watch 60 Minutes without cable, we need to find a way to watch the channel it’s on: CBS. If we can get a CBS live stream, then we can just tune in at the regular time and watch CBS. So how do we do that?

There are two main options here. One is to get a pay TV service. No, we’re not talking about cable — this is CordCutting.com, after all. We’re talking about a live TV streaming service, or “skinny bundle.” Skinny bundles are “skinny” because they slim down bloated cable channel bundles, and this helps them keep costs down. They also tend to offer free trials, giving you a way to watch 60 Minutes free online (until your free trial is up, of course).

There’s another way to get CBS — and therefore 60 Minutes — without cable. And it’s a free way, too! We’re talking about antenna TV, and we’ll explain it all in a moment. Read on for our list below, where we’ll start by covering the skinny bundles, then talk about antennas, and then wrap things up with a brief discussion of devices like Fire TV and Roku streaming sticks.

Not every streaming service has a live stream of CBS, but Hulu does. Actually, be precise, Hulu + Live TV is the service that will get you CBS and 60 Minutes online. There are two main options from Hulu. Hulu offers a very affordable service that lets you watch TV shows and movies on demand (just like Netflix does). It also offers a live TV service called Hulu + Live TV, and that one is the one we want if we’re going to stream 60 Minutes online. We recommend both Hulu subscription options, but only one will get you live TV, so make sure you’re picking the right one! Hulu + Live TV has a free trial program.

fuboTV likes to market itself as a sports-first streaming service. That’s true, but don’t let that turn you off if you’re not a sports fan: fuboTV has plenty of other channels, too, and it’s entry-level streaming channel bundle is pretty well-rounded. fuboTV offers live streams of CBS in most markets, and it has a free trial. It’s a great option for streaming 60 Minutes online.

AT&T TV Now

AT&T TV Now is a live TV streaming service owned by (surprise, surprise) AT&T. This service’s branding can be a bit confusing, because AT&T also owns a more traditional pay TV service called AT&T TV (that’s right: It has the exact same name, but without the “Now.”). AT&T TV Now is different, because it streams online. You can watch it anywhere on all sorts of devices, and you don’t need to have AT&T internet or phone service to get it. It includes a live stream of CBS in most markets, which makes it a strong option for streaming 60 Minutes.

YouTube TV

YouTube is a great website, but we’re talking about something different here: YouTube TV. Like regular old YouTube, YouTube TV is a streaming service owned by Google (or “Alphabet,” as they like to be known these days). Unlike regular old YouTube, though, YouTube TV has live network and broadcast TV channels — including CBS, complete with live streams of 60 Minutes at its usual hour (or in its entirety right after football — you know how that goes). YouTube TV does cost money, but it has a free trial program that you can use to check out the 60 Minutes live stream risk-free.

Industry insiders call skinny bundles “multichannel” streaming services, which are just what they sound like: Services with more than one TV channel. That can be a pain for cord cutters who only care about one channel. Why should you have to subscribe to a bunch of other networks when you just want CBS 60 Minutes?

In the case of CBS, though, there’s a nice alternative. CBS owns its own streaming service, CBS All Access (they’re going to change the name to Paramount Plus soon, so keep that in mind — if you hear someone talking about “Paramount Plus,” they’re just talking about the same thing we’re talking about here). As the name (for now) suggests, CBS All Access is full of CBS content. It has previously aired episodes of CBS shows on demand, new exclusive CBS All Access originals, and — drumroll, please — a CBS live stream in select markets. If you’re in a market that has access to the live stream, CBS All Access is a great way to stream 60 Minutes without having to subscribe to a whole bundle of other channels along the way.

Free Over-the-Air TV

If you’re old enough to remember when 60 Minutes first came on the air in 1968, then you might remember watching 60 Minutes with an antenna before cable was around. Cable was invented way back in the 1940s, but it really didn’t take off until the 60s and 70s, which means that 60 Minutes used to reach a lot of audiences by over-the-air transmission. Whatever happened to that?

The short answer is: Nothing! Free over-the-air TV is still around (though protocols and frequencies have changed over the years, so you might not be able to use the same antenna your parents did in the 60s). Local stations with terrestrial broadcast towers still send out TV signals for free, and anyone close enough can pick up those broadcasts with an antenna, no cable required. In many markets, the local TV broadcast stations are affiliates of the major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC). And since 60 Minutes airs on CBS, this means that you might be able to use an antenna to watch 60 Minutes for free, no cable necessary. You can check for nearby stations using the FCC’s official tool. If you see a CBS affiliate nearby, all you’ll have to do is grab an antenna with the right range, plug it into your TV, scan for channels (you’ll find the option in your TV’s settings — use your remote), and you’ll be all set to watch 60 Minutes.

Can I Watch 60 Minutes on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast?

Any good cord cutting setup includes two types of things: Streaming services and streaming devices. It takes two to tango, here! Just like you can’t use Microsoft Word without a computer, you can’t use Hulu or YouTube TV without something to watch on. And just like you need programs to make your computer useful, you need apps to make full use of your Fire TV, Roku, or other devices.

So which services go with which devices? The good news is that, these days, it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Sometimes tech companies will get into little spats and mess things up, but for the most part, the streaming companies seem to be getting along well these days. That makes it easy to stream 60 Minutes on a Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, or another device of your choice. Just check the chart below to make sure your device works with the service you want to try out.

As for antennas, those are even easier: You can plug them straight into your TV. Just scan for channels and you’ll be good to go! You don’t need to deal with any streaming devices to watch TV over the air, and you can use the same TV for both by using two different inputs on the back of your TV (just plug your streaming device and antenna into their proper spots, and don’t forget that you need to use the TV controller to switch inputs when you want to hop from one to the other.

If you want to integrate your antenna into your streaming setup a bit more, you can do that with a little streaming know-how. We’d recommend an OTA DVR that will let you turn your antenna TV into digital TV that you can stream, record, and replay from afar. If you want to keep it simple, you could also get a smart TV that lets you switch between the antenna input and your favorite streaming services without having to use more than one controller (we like the Roku smart TVs best).

Watch What You Want, 60 Minutes Fans!

Cutting the cord is easier when you don’t have to give up great channels like CBS and great shows like 60 Minutes. But there’s still so much more for you to watch, so don’t stop here. Check out what’s on another major network, like Fox — which is just as easy to watch online or over the air as CBS is. Or check out the streaming options, because CBS isn’t the only big network with its own streaming service: NBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, has one called Peacock that we really like. There’s never a lack of things to watch when you’re a cord cutter!