Suddenly, “CBS Evening News” was back. The news executives behind the show wanted it never to return.
The show’s viewership once again fell below 4 million viewers, a critical breaking point that had previously alarmed Paramount Skydance’s news department. CBS News recently scrapped the CBS Evening News, anchored by Maurice Dubois and John Dickerson, after it lost viewers, reaching fewer than 4 million viewers on many weeknights.
According to Nielsen data, the total number of viewers for the five-day period ending March 13 was about 3.83 million, with 468,000 viewers in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, the demographic most coveted by advertisers.
By contrast, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” long the top show among the three network evening news programs, averaged nearly 8.48 million, according to Nielsen, and 1.03 million in the demo. NBC’s “NBC Nightly News” averaged 6.51 million viewers overall and 946,000 in the demo during the same period.
CBS News “retitled” its Friday Evening News, so its results are not included in the tally.
Mr. Dokoupil was moved from his perch on CBS Morning to become the program’s anchor in part because CBS News executives feared he was falling further behind ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC’s NBC Nightly News, led by Dickerson and Dubois, whose programs focused more on corporate stories and news features than headlines. These concerns are now on the rise.
As of March 12, quarter-to-date, CBS Evening News had lost 15% of its critical 25-54 demo audience, the number of viewers coveted by news program advertisers, compared to the same period last year. By comparison, NBC’s “NBC Nightly News” rose 8% in the demo and ABC’s “World News Tonight” fell 4%.
Norah O’Donnell’s tenure on CBS Evening News ended in 2024, leaving the show with approximately 5.4 million viewers. Dokoupil’s first five days (January 5th to January 9th) averaged nearly 4.17 million viewers, and the following week drew 4.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.
The decline in viewership came after CBS News took Dokoupil to various parts of the country and the Middle East in the aftermath of the outbreak of conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel. Mr. Dokoupil was the only one of the so-called “Big Three” evening news anchors to get this close to combat.
Dokoupil has been a high-profile co-anchor of CBS Mornings for many years, catching the attention of both former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky and current CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. He has shown a penchant for interesting features, most recently arguing with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about whether his writings express antipathy toward Israel.
CBS News executives believe some of the ratings results were due to changes associated with the recent transition to daylight savings time, according to a person familiar with the matter. And they were encouraged by results showing that Dokoupil’s “Evening News” was gaining viewers compared to earlier season broadcasts. The show’s ratings are up 7% among viewers and 10% among viewers ages 25-54 compared to average ratings for this season so far.
