Archive · 8 Jan 2026
Tony Dokoupil's CBS Evening News Debut Draws 4.4 Million Viewers
Tony Dokoupil had his first show as the new anchor of CBS Evening News.
Almost 4.4 million people watched it.
That's fewer than the other big news shows on NBC and ABC.
It's also fewer than the last time CBS had a new anchor.
But it's better than how CBS was doing before.
A lot of people are watching less TV news these days, so it's not easy to get big numbers.
Tony's show did better than the average for CBS this season, though.
So, it's a good start!
Tony Dokoupil's debut on CBS Evening News drew 4.37 million viewers.
The show had 596,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo, compared to 1.1 million for NBC and 1.02 million for ABC.
Viewership was down 23% from the same day last year, when CBS averaged 5.69 million viewers.
The debut beat CBS's Q4 numbers, with a 9% increase in viewers and 20% in the 25-54 demo.
Previous CBS Evening News debuts, like Norah O'Donnell's in 2019 and Jeff Glor's in 2017, had higher viewership.
- Who
- Tony Dokoupil
- What
- Debut of CBS Evening News
- When
- Monday
- Where
- United States
- Why
- To replace previous anchors and attract viewers
- Viewers
- 4.37 million
- 25-54 Demo
- 596,000
- Compared to NBC
- 7.21 million viewers, 1.1 million in 25-54 demo
- Compared to ABC
- 8.24 million viewers, 1.02 million in 25-54 demo
- Year-over-year change
- Down 23% from 5.69 million viewers in 2025
- Q4 improvement
- Up 9% in viewers and 20% in 25-54 demo
- Previous CBS Evening News
- 5.35 million viewers with Dickerson and DuBois