A senior producer at CBS Evening News has been fired amid a chaotic week for its new host, Tony Dokoupil, according to reports.
Javier Guzman, the No. 2 broadcast producer at the now Donald Trump–friendly network’s evening program, was let go following Wednesday’s broadcast, The Wrap reported.
It is not clear why Guzman was fired, though the move is not believed to be directly linked to the disastrous start of MAGA-coded Dokoupil’s tenure on CBS News’ flagship evening show.
One source told The Wrap that Guzman may have been dismissed following a falling-out with executive producer Kim Harvey. News of Guzman’s firing was first reported by The Guardian media reporter Jeremy Barr, who noted that it came as Dokoupil continues to generate headlines for his rocky debut at CBS Evening News.
“Unclear what the rationale was, but led to confusion in the newsroom… and it’s only week one of the show,” Barr posted on X. “The timing is obviously not ideal with Tony Dokoupil on a cross-country tour right now.”
It was during Dokoupil’s “Live From America Tour,” marking his first week in the role, that he drew widespread mockery for sobbing on air while discussing his childhood in Miami.
Dokoupil and his mother left South Florida in 1986 when he was six years old after his father—then a major drug dealer—ran into legal trouble. While explaining why returning to Miami is so emotional for him, Dokoupil began sobbing and dramatically wiping tears from his eyes.
“It makes me emotional, it’s so funny,” Dokoupil said, asking to “let me get a second here” as he tried to compose himself.
“The reason it’s so emotional for me is because I feel like I was robbed of the full Miami experience,” he added.
In a 2014 CBS News profile, Dokoupil said his father’s drug empire was so lucrative that it helped pay for him to attend the now $53,000-a-year Gulliver Preparatory School in South Florida whose whose alumni include Jeb Bush’s children. He also attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Columbia University in Manhattan.
He and his wife, MS NOW anchor Katy Tur, live in one of Brooklyn’s most expensive enclaves.
The emotional display followed Dokoupil’s debut broadcast, which got off to a disastrous start as he struggled to determine which segment he was supposed to be presenting and repeatedly flubbed his lines.
On Tuesday night, he compounded the backlash by heaping praise on the “many lives and many jobs” of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ending the segment with a glowing “salute” to the Trump Cabinet official as “the ultimate Florida man.”
Staff at CBS News are reportedly mortified and “overwhelmingly depressed” by Dokoupil’s chaotic rollout at the newly MAGA-fied CBS Evening News.
One insider told Status the show’s launch has been a “total s–t show,” while another recalled it as a “total disaster.”
Guzman had only begun his role as senior broadcast producer at CBS Evening News in August, according to his LinkedIn page. He previously spent nearly eight years as a senior producer on the program and has also held producer roles at CBSN and Vice Media.
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment.
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