CBS Evening News viewership has fallen below four million for the first time since Tony Dokoupil assumed the anchor role following a major program revamp.
Rough Launch in January
The nightly news broadcast encountered challenges from the outset in January. Dokoupil faced technical glitches during his debut regular show while transitioning between segments. A network staffer described the premiere, which featured social media clips of Dokoupil asking passersby at a train station to pronounce his name, as “embarrassing.”
Initial Ratings and Comparisons
The first week under Dokoupil drew an average of 4.17 million total viewers and 533,000 in the adults 25-54 demographic, per Nielsen data. This marked a 23 percent decline from the same period in 2025. CBS News highlighted a 4 percent increase compared to the season average starting in September.
However, ratings have since declined further. Last week, the program averaged 3.83 million total viewers and 468,000 in the key demo, according to Nielsen figures.
Network Changes and Competition
CBS previously discontinued the version anchored by Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson after it lost audience share and dipped below four million viewers on multiple weeknights. Dokoupil’s numbers trail ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir, which attracted 8.48 million viewers last week, and NBC’s Nightly News with Tom Llamas at 6.51 million, Nielsen reports show.
Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief since October and founder of The Free Press, oversaw these shifts. Dokoupil succeeded the co-anchors as part of broader updates. A network staffer characterized the revamped CBS Evening News as “state TV.”
Key Moments and Reactions
President Donald Trump remarked to Dokoupil on the program that he “wouldn’t have a job right now” if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election. Weiss also faced criticism for delaying a 60 Minutes segment on Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, cited for inhumane conditions; it aired nearly a month later.
In response to the latest ratings slide, California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu posted on X: “If people want conservative slant, they can watch Fox or Newsmax. People don’t want broadcast news to slant one way or the other. They just want news.”
