CBS News has moved up Tony Dokoupil\u2019s\u00a0debut as host of Evening News to Saturday following the Trump Administration\u2019s capture of Venezuelan dictator\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dokoupil was set to start hosting EN\u00a0on Monday from Miami, as part of a 10-city tour to celebrate his move into the anchor seat. That plan was changed after Maduro\u2019s capture, with CBS posting on X the \u201cLive From America\u201d tour would begin \u201clater this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will make his hosting debut from San Francisco before going to New York City for his official launch on Monday. Dokoupil\u2019s first broadcast will be at 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Variety\u2019s Brian Steinberg reported CBS \u201cwill scuttle, for now\u201d Dokoupil\u2019s tour earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n
CBS News had announced the 10-city tour in a press release on December 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony\u2019s superpower is listening to people. We want to serve Americans in the best way possible by meeting them where they are every night \u2013 and we\u2019ll do that with this cross-country kick-off tour,\u201d CBS Evening News executive producer Kim Harvey\u00a0said at the time.<\/p>\n
Beyond Miami and SF, Dokoupil was going to anchor from the following cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. He was then going to wrap the nationwide tour up by settling into the CBS News studio in NYC.<\/p>\n
As you would expect, CBS has been heavily promoting Dokoupil heading into his anchoring debut. He called for viewers to make him \u201cearn\u201d their trust<\/a> in an op-ed, and CBS filmed a segment at Grand Central Station where Dokoupil asked people if they knew who he was<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dokoupil and CBS also unveiled their 5 principles for reporting on Friday. Those principles<\/a> \u2014 including \u201cWe Love America\u201d and \u201cWe Work For You\u201d \u2014 led to teasing from some media critics online.<\/p>\n His move into the anchor seat comes as CBS tries to close the gap with ABC and NBC in the evening news battle<\/a>. ABC\u2019s World News Tonight with David Muir was the highest-rated evening news show for the ninth year in a row in 2026, pulling in an average of 7.84 million viewers; NBC Nightly News \u2014 which switched to anchor Tom Llamas midway through the year \u2014 grabbed the silver medal with 6.20 million viewers, and CBS Evening News placed third with 4.05 million viewers each night.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: This report originally stated that CBS had scrapped Dokoupil\u2019s introductory tour. That was not accurate and has been corrected.<\/p>\n The post CBS Moves Tony Dokoupil\u2019s CBS Evening News Debut Up Amid Maduro Ouster<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n