“CBS Evening News” has poured resources into its relaunch under anchor Tony Dokoupil, including a national tour and a trip to Israel to cover the Iran war, and the show has featured high-profile interviews with President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But the ratings haven’t followed.
Total viewers for the show in the week ending on March 13 reached 3.84 million, according to Nielsen data, down from the nearly 4.17 million from his debut week as anchor in January. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, he hit 468,000 viewers, down from the 533,000 viewers in his debut week. CBS also retitled the show on Friday, March 13, so those ratings were not factored into the total.
Dokoupil’s predecessors, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, drew below 4 million viewers during their roughly yearlong run. Norah O’Donnell’s tenure hosting the program had also reached a high of nearly 5.4 million total viewers.
ABC’s “World News Tonight,” the David Muir-led program that has regularly led the evening news ratings, reached nearly 8.48 million viewers during the week ending on March 13, with 1.03 million in the demo. NBC’s “Nightly News,” led by Tom Llamas, reached 6.51 million total average viewers and 946,000 in the demo.
CBS News executives attributed the decline mostly to the Daylight Saving Time change, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Dokoupil’s tenure anchoring “CBS Evening News” has drawn some criticism for its coverage of Trump administration officials, including his framing of the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, as well as some of the show’s lighter segments. The show also saw at least 11 producerstake voluntary buyouts.
Still, ratings had largely remained above 4 million, even reaching a high of 4.6 million, and it achieved week-to-week growth in February. The show is also up 7% in total viewers and 10% in the 25-54 demo compared to the season averages, and CBS News has seen viewership of “Evening News” stories on its website up by 99%.
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