Tony Dokoupil will be the next anchor of CBS Evening News, one of the first major moves made at the network under new editor in chief Bari Weiss. He will start in the role on Jan. 5. Dokoupil will succeed John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, who announced their departures after less than a year anchoring the broadcast. Dokoupil has been co-host of CBS Mornings since 2019. Dokoupil’s selection comes after reports that Weiss was interested in other figures, like Anderson Cooper and Bret Baier, taking a major role at the network. But Cooper recently re-signed with CNN, and Baier is under contract through 2028. Dokoupil will be the sixth anchor of the nightly broadcast in the last decade, following Scott Pelley, Jeff Glor, Norah O’Donnell, Dickerson and DuBois. The network has tried various changes over the years to draw in viewers, but CBS Evening News has remained a distant third to its broadcast rivals. At 44, Dokoupil will be the youngest of all of the broadcast anchors. NBC recently transitioned to Tom Llamas, 46, who succeeded Lester Holt earlier this year as anchor of NBC Nightly News. ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir, 52, has long led in the ratings. The network said that in his first month, Dokoupil will take a cross-country tour. In a statement, Weiss said, “We live in a time in which many people have lost trust in the media. Tony Dokoupil is the person to win it back. That’s because he believes in old school journalistic values: asking the hard questions, following the facts wherever they lead and holding power to account. Americans hungry for fairness will see that on display night after night.” No successor was named to Dokoupil’s role at CBS Mornings, in which he has co-hosted with Gayle King and Nate Burleson. On that show, Dokoupil has reported from Israel on the Oct. 7 terror attack and the hostage release deal; covered the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX; and was on the scene for coverage of the wildfires in Maui and Southern California, among other assignments. Last year, Dokoupil was at the center of internal friction in the news division over the way that he conducted an interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. King and Burleson also took part in the interview, but Dokoupil drew criticism for the way he pressed Coates on the section of his book, The Message, that criticizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Dokoupil, who is Jewish, challenged Coates on whether he believed the state of Israel had a right to exist. CBS News brass addressed the matter during a staff call, featuring Adrienne Roark, then president of editorial and newsgathering, and Wendy McMahon, then president of CBS News and Stations. They told employees that Dokoupil’s questioning did not meet the news division’s “editorial standards.” But Shari Redstone, then chair of CBS-parent Paramount, later called it a “mistake” for CBS News to publicly rebuke Dokoupil. She described the interview as a “model” of “civil discourse.” Weiss’s The Free Press, which published an audio version of the Roark-McMahon call, defended Dokoupil. Roark and McMahon departed the network before Skydance took over Paramount, and later purchased The Free Press as Weiss became head of the news division. In a statement, Tom Cibrowski, president of CBS News, said that Dokoupil “is what everyone wants in an evening-news anchor – authentic, compassionate, unafraid,. He connects instantly, whether he’s talking with world leaders or with families navigating difficult news in their own backyards.” UTA represents Dokoupil, as well as Muir and Llamas. Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Nobody watches CBS nightly news so he’ll be going in the year he makes it that long The issue with CBS management since Walter Cronkite retired back in 1981 is they gave up on trying to keep CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning competitive, and allowing ABC World News Tonight, ABC Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and NBC Today to be the runaway hits, leaving CBS in last place, although CTM had a brief ratings boost during the 1998-99 period when the pairing of Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman on GMA was a ratings disaster for ABC, and CBS also adopted and embraced the status quo and lack of patience mindset. Since Dan Rather was given the boot in 2005, CBS has remained status quo with the turnover of on-air talents, and constantly rebranding the morning show (CBS Early Show, CBS Mornings, and CBS This Morning), and I can understand people are like, “Pick a name and stick with it,” plus another saying on getting the ratings to climb would be, “This… will… take… time.” Congratulations Tony! You will do great! I enjoy Tony D. on their morning show. I don’t know if he will do well as an anchor or not. One of his strengths is his conversational repartee and that won’t be enabled in an anchor role. At the same time, I’m glad they’re not putting some stodgy news person in the anchor seat. Not only is he the next anchor, but he will also be the next former anchor! CBS could save some bucks by using an AI anchor. Maybe Tilly Norwood?