Posted in: CBS, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: cbs evening news, opinion

CBS Evening News Drops Under 4M Viewers, Same as Pre-Tony Dokoupil

Anchor Tony Dokoupil and CBS News head Bari Weiss might want to be concerned by what Nielsen had to say about the CBS Evening News' ratings.

Published Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:19:08 -0500

by Ray Flook

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Article Summary

CBS Evening News drops below 4 million viewers, matching pre-Tony Dokoupil numbers per Nielsen ratings.
ABC and NBC evening news shows continue to outperform CBS in both total viewers and the 25-54 demo.
CBS News head Bari Weiss faces questions as audience declines despite major investment in Dokoupil.
FCC's Brendan Carr warns broadcasters to avoid "fake news" or risk losing their licenses amid low trust.

After a whole lot of time and money spent to sell television viewers on the idea that CBS Mornings' Tony Dokoupil was the answer to the CBS Evening News' ratings woes, CBS News head Bari Weiss might have some explaining to do. In the Nielsen numbers released earlier today, it seems Weiss and Dokoupil have succeeded in bringing the evening news program's numbers back to the level they were pre-Dokoupil (and a serious hit in the advertiser-loving 25-54 demo). Prior to the Weiss/Dokoupil era, the Maurice DuBois & John Dickerson-anchored CBS Evening News was also averaging less than 4 million viewers, a "red alert" for the news show at the time. Will that be the case this time? Or could other factors be in play?

Average Overall Audience For the Five Days Ending on March 13th:

ABC's World News Tonight: 8.48 million viewers

NBC Nightly News: 6.51 million viewers

CBS Evening News: 3.83 million viewers

Average Overall Audience For the Five Days Ending on March 13th (25-54 Demo):

ABC's World News Tonight: 1.03 million viewers (8% increase)

NBC Nightly News: 946,000 viewers (15% decrease)

CBS Evening News: 468,000 viewers (4% decrease)

Note: CBS News "retitled" its Friday broadcast of "Evening News," so its results are not included in the tabulations.

The ratings news comes as network news finds itself under attack by Donald Trump and his FCC talking head, Brendan Carr. Recently, Carr took to social media to offer broadcasters a choice: be more Trump-friendly or risk losing your license. "Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up," the FCC chair wrote in a tweet, which included a screencap of one of Trump's rants over on his version of social media.

"The law is clear," he continued. "Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not. And frankly, changing course is in their own business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters. The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation's airwaves. It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news. When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong. It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can't allow that to happen. Time for change!"

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