Tony Dokoupil Is Latest in Growing Parade of ‘CBS Evening News’ Anchors

Leslie Moonves and Katie Couric couldn’t do it. Nor might Jeff Fager and Scott Pelley. David Rhodes and Jeff Glor proved unable to make issues work, as did Susan Zirinsky and Norah O’Donnell. Wendy McMahon, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois also couldn’t flip issues round.

And so it’s now as much as 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 might: Reverse the failing fortunes of the venerable “CBS Evening News.”

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’ mum or dad company needs to alter its trajectory — no simple feat in an period when more people are liable to get their data and headlines from less conventional retailers.

Dokoupil’s new function was announced Wednesday during a telecast of “CBS Mornings,” and his transfer to evenings will possible have some effects in the A.M. Who will exchange him in his current roost at “CBS Mornings” — and what does his exit portend for his A.M. co-hosts, Gayle King and Nate Burleson? There is a way among some people accustomed to the matter that CBS News would possibly search to deliver an outdoor host to the present.

The night anchor function “is an important job at an important time,” Dokoupil said on air Wednesday.

In Doukopil, CBS News has a younger journalist — just 44 years outdated, in contrast with 46 for NBC News night anchor Tom Llamas, and 52 for ABC’s David Muir — who received his start as a author for Newsweek and The Daily Beast before transferring into TV. Before he will get behind the desk, he has already revealed some of his stances on sizzling subjects. In 2024, he received right into a back-and-forth on air with creator Ta-Nehisi Coates, and questioned the creator on his views about Israel’s proper to exist. The change received Dokoupil a reprimand from administration, who claimed the interview didn’t meet network requirements. But his punishment drew the ire of Shari Redstone, then controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS News’ company mum or dad.

That most likely received’t be the case with Weiss, who joined CBS News after mum or dad Paramount Skydance purchased her conservative opinion website, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million. Weiss has made little effort to cover her pro-Israel stance, and has spent a lot of her time at CBS News reserving newsmakers and conservative personalities. On Saturday, CBS will telecast a city corridor during which Weiss will discuss with Erika Kirk, who has taken over the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA following the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk, in September.

Dokoupil could have harder battles to wage. Successive waves of company administration have discovered “CBS Evening News” wanting, and a mix of impatience and meddling has resulted in a revolving door of personalities stationed behind the present’s desk.

CBS snared Couric from NBC by way of a high-profile poaching in 2006, in a bid to make “Evening News” more of a draw among youthful viewers. By 2011, however, the activity proved too daunting; viewers didn’t gravitate to some of the modifications Couric examined, and yet the same-old formulation wasn’t profitable sufficient to outmatch the program’s rivals. Since that time, viewers have watched as Pelley, Anthony Mason, Glor, O’Donnell and, most lately, Dickerson and DuBois, made related efforts.

Meanwhile, “NBC Nightly News” has had just 4 anchors over the past 4 a long time, while “World News Tonight” has had six since Peter Jennings took the desk in the mid Eighties.

In current cycles, situations have grown more dire. Viewership at “CBS Evening News” has fallen noticeably during the most current iteration of the program, which makes use of an atypical two-anchor format and initially centered on enterprise reporting fairly than every breaking story. Dickerson and DuBois are each leaving CBS in the next few weeks. For the 5 day interval ended December 5, “CBS Evening News” received a mean of almost 4.36 million viewers total. Dickerson and DuBois captured a mean of 5.2 million viewers on their first broadcast earlier this 12 months.

“CBS Evening News” has shed advert {dollars} over the past 5 years, with complete sales tied to the present down 5% between 2020 and 2024, according to Guideline, a tracker of advert spending. In 2024, “Evening News” captured almost $125.2 million in promoting, however NBC’s “Nightly News” wooed $153.1 million while ABC’s “World News Tonight” generated almost $235.9 million.

What “CBS Evening News” actually wants is past Dokoupil’s talents. It’s no secret that CBS ceded eight associates in 1994 when it misplaced NFL rights to Fox the 12 months prior. That has crimped the network’s ability to compete more straight with NBC and ABC on a number of fronts.

To win the night news game, CBS must snare viewers away from NBC and ABC — and, doubtlessly, Fox News Channel, which gives a Bret Baier-anchored “Special Report” on weeknights reverse the night news packages. Gathering such a disparate crowd for a “CBS Evening News” led by yet another anchor could also be not be the best activity.