Tony Dokoupil is pushing back.
The anchor, who has been under intense scrutiny since taking over in early January, led CBS’s flagship news show to just over 4 million viewers in the five days ending May 22, according to Nielsen, the first time in weeks that the show had reached that level of viewership.
The show also attracted 605,000 viewers in the 25-to-54 age group favored by advertisers. Last week, “CBS Evening News” drew about 3.8 million viewers and 482,000 viewers in this demographic.
Don’t get me wrong. “CBS Evening News” remains far behind its two main rivals: ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News.” But at least there are signs that it is regaining some ground.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” continues to lead the field with approximately 8.2 million viewers overall and 966,000 in the demo. “NBC Nightly News” drew about 6.1 million viewers and 867,000 viewers in the demo.
Last week’s ratings appear to be based on four days of broadcasting. ABC and NBC each “retitled” one of their five-day broadcasts last week, and it wasn’t immediately clear if CBS did the same, but Fridays are typically excluded from the count. Networks will “retitle” certain episodes of their evening newscasts if they determine that external factors, such as live sports or lower-than-usual viewership, will impact Nielsen ratings measurements.
In recent months, the 4 million viewer mark has been seen as a kind of breaking point. Before Dokoupil took over the show’s reins, CBS News aired a version of the “CBS Evening News” anchored by Maurice Dubois and John Dickerson, and Lester Holt anchored NBC’s “Night There were hopes that the two-anchor system would generate renewed interest after handing over the reins of “Lee” to Tom Lamas, but that didn’t happen, and the CBS show lost viewers, dropping below 4 million viewers on many weeknights.
Mr. Dokoupil has been in the spotlight for years during his time as co-anchor of “CBS Mornings,” attracting 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. He also sought to infuse a more writerly voice into the evening news program, and early in his tenure with the show, he traveled to hot spots around the country and around the world.
Last week’s “CBS Evening News” telecast included the launch of “Affordability in America,” a new series that examines how Americans are coping with rising prices and economic uncertainty. Senior executives believe some of the viewership growth is due to viewers taking note of the work of Dokoupil and other members of the evening news production team, including executive producer Kim Harvey, according to people familiar with the matter.
