A significant reshuffle is underway at one of America's flagship news networks, with CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil emerging as the favourite to take the helm of the CBS Evening News. This comes as the current hosts, Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, prepare to step down later this month, less than a year after their debut.
Leadership Turmoil and a Ratings Struggle
According to sources, the 44-year-old Dokoupil is preferred over other internal candidates, including former host Norah O'Donnell, who remains at CBS as a senior correspondent. The departure of DuBois, 60, and Dickerson, 57, follows a period of disappointing ratings for the evening broadcast, which was deemed a flop within weeks of its launch.
The shake-up coincides with a dramatic change in leadership. In October, Paramount CEO David Ellison appointed Bari Weiss, the 41-year-old founder of The Free Press, as the news division's editor-in-chief. This move followed an $8 billion acquisition by Ellison's Skydance Media over the summer. Weiss, known for her anti-'woke' stance, was reportedly brought in to revitalise the struggling broadcast.
Internal Discontent and a Blast from the Past
The network's new direction has sparked criticism from within its own ranks. Legendary journalist Connie Chung, 79, who once hosted the CBS Sunday Evening News, publicly voiced her dismay on a podcast this week. "The paradigm has completely changed in news, and we have so much opinion that the truth doesn’t hold value anymore," Chung stated.
She lamented the current state of CBS, contrasting it with her heyday in the 1990s. "CBS is a whole different organisation than I had worked for. CBS has now been taken over, thanks to greedy owners," Chung said, accusing former owner Shari Redstone of partnering with the Ellison family. She expressed bewilderment at Bari Weiss's role, saying, "I don’t know what to call Bari Weiss. I just don’t know."
Her husband, retired host Maury Povich, 86, offered a slightly more measured view, suggesting they should "wait and see" regarding Weiss's impact.
A Search for Stability and Star Power
Before settling on internal candidate Dokoupil, Weiss is understood to have pursued bigger names to lead the Evening News. She was reportedly keen to hire Fox News star Bret Baier or CNN's Anderson Cooper, but both were locked into contracts with their respective networks.
The management changes have also been linked to political manoeuvring. Podcast host Pablo Torre, who interviewed Chung, accused the Ellisons of cosying up to the Trump administration to secure regulatory approval for the Paramount deal from the FCC. The acquisition was finalised last July.
As Tony Dokoupil awaits a final decision, the future of CBS Evening News hangs in the balance, caught between a desire for renewed ratings success and internal strife over its journalistic identity.
