Leslie Moonves and Katie Couric couldn’t do it. Nor could Jeff Fager and Scott Pelley. David Rhodes and Jeff Glor proved unable to make things work, as did Susan Zirinsky and Norah O’Donnell. Wendy McMahon, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois also couldn’t turn things around.
And so it is now up to Bari Weiss, the newly christened editor in chief of CBS News, and Tony Dokoupil, a morning-news anchor with a scholarly disposition, to do what none of their predecessors could: Reverse the failing fortunes of the venerable “CBS Evening News.” Dokoupil takes on the new job starting January 5.
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Dokoupil is the latest of CBS News‘ up-and-comers to be awarded the “Evening News” anchor chair, but the job comes with a difficult mission attached. The program, which has ties to legendary personnel like Walter Cronkite, has been mired in third place behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News” for years. CBS News’ parent company wants to change its trajectory — no easy feat in an era when more people are prone to get their information and headlines from less traditional outlets.
Dokoupil’s new role was announced Wednesday during a telecast of “CBS Mornings,” and his move to evenings will likely have some effects in the A.M. Who will replace him in his current roost at “CBS Mornings” — and what does his exit portend for his co-hosts, Gayle King and Nate Burleson? There is a sense among some people familiar with the matter that CBS News might seek to bring an outside host to the show.
The evening anchor role “is an important job at an important time,” Dokoupil said on air Wednesday. He will spend a chunk of his first month as the new anchor on a tour around the nation, CBS News said, meeting people in U.S. towns and cities. The program will revert to its usual single-anchor format after months during which CBS tested Dickerson and DuBois in a two-person presentation.
In Doukopil, CBS News has a young journalist — just 44 years old, compared with 46 for NBC News evening anchor Tom Llamas, and 52 for ABC’s David Muir — who got his start as a writer for Newsweek and The Daily Beast before moving into TV. Before he gets behind the desk, he has already revealed some of his stances on hot topics. In 2024, he got into a back-and-forth on air with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and questioned the author on his views about Israel’s right to exist. The exchange got Dokoupil a reprimand from management, who claimed the interview didn’t meet network standards. But his punishment drew the ire of Shari Redstone, then controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS News’ corporate parent.
Weiss, who joined CBS News after parent Paramount Skydance bought her conservative opinion site, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million, is likely aligned with Dokoupil’s viewpoint. Weiss has made little effort to hide her pro-Israel stance, and has spent much of her time at CBS News booking newsmakers and conservative personalities. On Saturday, CBS will telecast a town hall during which Weiss will talk with Erika Kirk, who has taken over the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA following the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk, in September.
Dokoupil may have tougher battles to wage. Successive waves of corporate management have found “CBS Evening News” wanting, and a combination of impatience, worry and meddling has resulted in a revolving door of personalities moving in and out from behind the show’s desk.
CBS snared Couric from NBC via a high-profile poaching in 2006, in a bid to make “Evening News” more of a draw among younger viewers. By 2011, however, the task proved too daunting; viewers didn’t gravitate to some of the changes Couric tested, and yet the same-old formula wasn’t winning enough to outmatch the program’s rivals. Since that time, viewers have watched as Pelley, Anthony Mason, Glor, O’Donnell and, most recently, Dickerson and DuBois, made similar efforts.
Meanwhile, “NBC Nightly News” has had just four anchors over the past four decades, while “World News Tonight” has had six since Peter Jennings took the desk in the mid 1980s.
In recent cycles, conditions have grown more dire. Viewership at “CBS Evening News” has fallen noticeably during the most recent iteration of the program, which initially focused on enterprise reporting rather than most breaking stories. Dickerson and DuBois are both leaving CBS in the next few weeks. For the five day period ended December 5, “CBS Evening News” won an average of nearly 4.36 million viewers overall. Dickerson and DuBois captured an average of 5.2 million viewers on their first broadcast earlier this year.
“CBS Evening News” has shed ad dollars over the past five years, with total sales tied to the show down 5% between 2020 and 2024, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. In 2024, “Evening News” captured nearly $125.2 million in advertising, but NBC’s “Nightly News” wooed $153.1 million while ABC’s “World News Tonight” generated nearly $235.9 million.
What “CBS Evening News” really needs is beyond Dokoupil’s abilities. It’s no secret that CBS ceded eight affiliates in 1994 when it lost NFL rights to Fox the year prior. That has crimped the network’s ability to compete more directly with NBC and ABC on several fronts.
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