CBS, NBC & ABC Evening News Ratings Show Huge Swing: How’s Tony Dokoupil Doing?
What To Know
- The numbers are in for Tony Dokoupil since he took over as anchor of CBS Evening News.
- Find out how he is doing compared with his predecessors and rivals at ABC and NBC.
The latest ratings are in for the evening news broadcasts, including the numbers for Tony Dokoupil‘s highly anticipated debut week as anchor of CBS Evening News. So, how did the new evening anchor do?
According to Deadline, citing data from Nielsen, Dokoupil’s debut week (week of January 5) on CBS Evening News averaged 4.17 million viewers, down 23 percent from the same period in 2025. The show also dropped in the key Adults 25-54 demo, falling from 690,000 viewers last year to 533,000 viewers.
The same period last year saw Norah O’Donnell covering President Trump‘s inauguration and the devastating California wildfires. It marked O’Donnell’s penultimate week as CBS Evening News anchor before John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois replaced her.
Despite being down on last year, CBS News has reported that Dokoupil’s debut was up versus the fourth quarter of 2025. The fourth quarter, which saw Dickerson and DuBois deliver their final broadcasts, averaged 4.03 million viewers and 502,000 demo viewers.
Dokoupil’s debut drew a lot of attention, as it came amid CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss‘ sweeping changes at the network. However, some have criticized CBS News and Dokoupil for attempting to appease the Trump administration under its new leadership.
One of those critics was House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who told The Jim Acosta Show on Tuesday (January 13) that he was confused when he first saw a clip of Dokoupil’s both sides stance reporting on the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol attack.
“When I first saw the clip, I was confused,” Jeffries said, per TheWrap, before making a quip about Trump supporter and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. “I said, ‘Wait, is this LindellTV? Is this Newsmax? Fox News? What’s going on?’ It turned out to be CBS. It was extraordinary.”
CBS Evening News wasn’t the only show to see year-over-year declines.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir claimed the top spot with 8.08 million viewers last week, though it was down nine percent on the same period from last year. The show was also down in the key demo, averaging 989,000, compared to 1.34 million in 2025.
It was a similar story for NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas, which averaged 6.73 million viewers last week, down nine percent from the 7.38 million viewers in the same week in 2025. While Nightly News won the week with 992,000 demo viewers, the numbers were down from the 1.16 million viewers from a year ago.
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