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

CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil Off to Less-Than-Impressive Start

Despite a big push and a lot of hype, the CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil didn't exactly get off to a strong start ratings-wise.

It's not like CBS News' Bari Weiss hasn't given new CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil a big rollout. We got a testimonial video from him promising viewers a warm & cozy news broadcast, followed by the five "promises" the news show is making with its viewers. Then, Weiss had a chance to spotlight her new star on Saturday night, giving viewers a chance to see how Dokoupil handles emergency news situations. Originally set to debut on Monday, the anchor found himself starting his tenure earlier than expected after the Trump Administration announced that the U.S. had arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and that the U.S. would be in the business of running another country and stealing its oil. With that kind of build-up, you can only imagine the ratings success that rained down upon CBS News. Seriously. You can only imagine, because the numbers from Nielsen aren't anything to brag about.

CBS Evening News Lost to ABC & NBC: The CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil drew approximately 4.37 million viewers, trailing NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas (7.21 million) and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (8.24 million).

CBS Evening News Lost to ABC & NBC in Key 25-54 Demo: Dokoupil locked in approximately 596,000, compared to 1.1 million for NBC Nightly News and 1.02 million for ABC World News Tonight.

CBS Evening News Scored Fewer Viewers Compared to the Same Day in 2025: Dokoupil's first official outing scored 23% fewer viewers when compared to the same day last year (CBS Evening News averaged 5.69 million on Jan. 6, 2025).

Dokoupil's Debut Underperforms Compared to Past Debuts: On January 27, 2025, the first edition of the John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois-hosted CBS Evening News drew 5.35 million viewers (774,000 in the 25-54 demo). In addition, Dokoupil's debut numbers were under Norah O'Donnell's debut numbers in 2019 and Jeff Glor's numbers in 2017.

But Wait! There's Good News! Dokoupil's debut did improve upon the Q4 numbers for the news program, which averaged 4.03 million viewers (502,000 in the 25-54 demo).

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