When CBS News‘ Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’s hand-picked star anchor Tony Dokoupil took a two week vacation, a curious thing happened; more people actually watched his show.
During his two-week hiatus, another CBS journalist — Matt Gutman — filled in behind the CBS Evening News desk. During his first week, Gutman drew 4.1 million viewers, which was the program’s best performance in 17 weeks and the first time it exceeded 4 million viewers since the end of March, according to media journalist Oliver Darcy of Status.
Whether or not the audience is rejecting Dokoupil, embracing Gutman, or a little bit of both, remains to be seen.
Dokoupil was one of Weiss’s earliest staffing announcements after she took over the network in October. He pulled 4 million viewers during the week of June 22, but he hadn’t attracted more than that since late March, according to Status.
CBS’s evening news show has struggled to consistently hit 4 million mark since Weiss took over.
With the station already struggling through its transition — and many of those struggles have been quite public — critics questioned Dokoupil’s decision to take two weeks off this early into his hosting tenure.
“Summer is when the second and third place networks try to make progress against the first place anchor who goes on vacation. In this case, the third place anchor took off for two weeks — a baffling move given his collapsing show — and his substitute outclassed him in the ratings,” Darcy quoted an unnamed TV executive as saying.
The same source described the outperformance by the host’s substitute as “another dagger in Tony’s neck.”
A CBS spokesperson told The Independent that Dokoupil has the network’s support and said the reporting around his performance has been misleading.
CBS pointed out that all network newscasts – CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News – had more viewers in the week of July 27 than July 20. One show, ABC World News Tonight, saw presenter Whit Johnson out-rate David Muir when he subbed for him the same week, CBS said.
A spokesperson for the network told The Independent: “The week of 7/27 just generated more news, which is why all numbers were up for every show. Claiming it has something to do with a Matt/Tony split is false, just like it would be to suggest ABC News increasing viewers has to do with a Whit/David split.”
They also said that Dokoupil had been “consistently trending up” and that the “network has confidence in Tony,” with a ratings growth in Q2, the first for the show since 2020, as well as 4.1 million viewers for the individual broadcast on July 21.
After Weiss named Dokoupil as the new anchor at CBS Evening News, Vanity Fair published an article questioning “more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders” about the reporter’s reputation at the network.
One of the respondents described Dokoupil as a “useful idiot” for Weiss, and another suggested he was “deeply lacking in self-awareness.”
The CBS spokesperson pointed to a more recent feature about Dokoupil in Variety focusing on the anchor’s innovative storytelling as further evidence of his success.
During his run as host, the show’s programming has been notably more friendly to President Donald Trump and his administration. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has appeared numerous times on his show, while Dokoupil agreed to do an “embedded” interview with former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem while she was in charge of ICE. His show also ran a segment offering a “salute” to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, describing him as the “ultimate Florida Man.”
Weiss, the founder of the “anti-woke” media outlet The Free Press, was controversially appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025, despite having no previous broadcast experience.
Dokoupil returns to the CBS Evening News desk on Monday.
The Independent has requested comment from CBS.