PRIMETIME PANIC

MAGA-Coded CBS Anchor Pleads With Viewers After Ratings Collapse

Tony Dokoupil sent a direct message to viewers after they deserted CBS’s primetime show during his first week as anchor.

CBS Evening News’ MAGA-coded freshman anchor Tony Dokoupil made a pointed appeal to viewers after his first week on the job ended in a ratings bloodbath.

Dokoupil, 45, saw his ratings plunge over his first four nights in the anchor seat following his disastrous debut on Jan. 5, with viewership declining 11.4 percent overall.

At the end of his Tuesday program, which featured a 13-minute interview with President Donald Trump at a Ford factory that was drowned out by machinery, the anchor made a forced appeal to viewers.

“You may not agree with everything you hear on this broadcast, but we trust you to listen, and we trust you to decide for yourself,” Dokoupil said.

He took a deep breath before signing off with his closing line, “And that’s another day in America.”

Dokoupil was given the anchor seat by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, an anti-woke opinion journalist who was installed in the job by CBS’ new owner, David Ellison, a Trump-friendly billionaire nepo-baby.

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Only days after his first broadcast, during which he stumbled over the teleprompter and introduced himself twice within 80 seconds, Dokoupil compared himself to legendary CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite.

While an average of nearly 30 million viewers watched Cronkite nightly during his primetime run from the 1960s to the 1980s, Dokoupil drew in roughly 4.4 million total viewers for his premiere, a number that fell to 3.9 million by his fourth night, according to Nielsen’s preliminary measurement.

Dokoupil’s show averaged just 4.17 million viewers from Jan. 5-11, according to Nielsen.

In comparison, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, who anchored the broadcast before departing the network last month, averaged 4.91 million viewers in their debut week in January 2025, following Trump’s first week in office, Deadline reported.

Dokoupil’s CBS Evening News ratings in the key 25-54 demographic, which TV advertisers closely watch, were down 19.44 percent from Monday to Thursday.

In a New Year’s Day video published before his first time on air as anchor, Dokoupil railed against “legacy media” for taking “into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American” and putting “too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you,” closely mirroring many critiques that Weiss herself has made over the years.

Dokoupil, who shares a four-floor townhouse in one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive enclaves with his wife—MS NOW anchor Katy Tur—was educated at a $53,000-a-year prep school, attended George Washington University and Columbia University, where he did not complete a PhD.

The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment.

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