Changes continue behind the scenes at “CBS Evening News”: Variety confirmed that the newscast’s No. 2 producer, Javier Guzman, was fired after Wednesday night’s broadcast. It’s the latest wrinkle in new anchor Tony Dokoupil’s eventful first week on the anchor desk.
Kim Harvey will continue as executive producer of the news program. “Tony Dokoupil’s CBS Evening News” has made headlines almost every day since Dokoupil took over the anchor chair this week, a major change orchestrated by CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
The week began with CBS News being forced to back out of plans to send Dokoupil on a week-long national broadcast tour after the U.S. invaded Venezuela. This prompted Dokoupil to begin his term with a three-part interview with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth early last Saturday morning.
On Monday, Dokoupil’s first public broadcast was marred by technical problems, Variety’s Dan Daddario said. “When the lineup’s segment about Sen. Mark Kelly preceded the segment about Gov. Tim Walz, Mr. Dokoupil spoke in confusion, then went silent. An anchor should be able to handle such a change without several agonizingly long pauses. ‘First day, we have a big problem here,’ Mr. Dokoupil said, clearly irritated.”
And on Tuesday, the show was also criticized for an unusual admission by Dokoupil. The program featured a completely unconventional tribute to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “No matter what you think about his politics, you have to admit that this is an impressive resume,” Dokoupil said, before pointing out how AI memes have helped Rubio land other jobs, including prime minister of Greenland, president of Hilton Hotels and Michelin Man. The move was seen as tone-deaf given the current global unrest and uncertainty over US actions in Venezuela.
Officials said Guzmán’s resignation was unrelated to the current case, but was part of a new television broadcast reorganization. Guzman had just accepted the role of senior broadcast producer at CBS Evening News in August. He previously served as a senior producer for the newscast since January 2018.
Guzman joined CBS Evening News shortly after Jeff Groh took over as anchor at the end of 2017. Among Guzman’s first assignments was serving as senior producer on the revival of the CBS News series “Eye on America,” which features long-form reporting and in-depth storytelling. Dokoupil was instrumental in the revival of “Eye on America.”
Norah O’Donnell replaced Groh in 2019. In January 2025, John Dickerson and Maurice Dubois became co-anchors. They anchored their last newscast in December and are set to be replaced by Dokoupil in early 2026. “CBS Evening News” has long held the No. 3 spot behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News.”
Guzman joined CBS News in 2017 as a supervising producer on “CBSN: On Assignment.” Prior to that, he spent a year as a senior producer on Vice Media’s broadcast “Vice News Tonight” for HBO. Guzman’s other credits include working at Fusion Media Group and as a line/show producer for WNYC Radio’s “The Takeaway.”
