Tony Dokoupil's Evening News ratings bring CBS back down to where it was last year

CBS Evening News has lagged behind the other two broadcasts for a while, and that it remains there is not really news. What is notable, however, is that the four-million-viewer benchmark is where the owners at Paramount-Skydance have started to get panicky. Variety reports that the previous iteration of CBS Evening News, which featured dual-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, ended after the broadcast began regularly falling below the four-millionviewer line on many weekdays. According to the trade, some CBS execs have attributed the bad week to daylight savings time. 

Of course, the ratings are only one part of CBS News’ current mission. Its “We love America” rebrand at the beginning of the year brought a town hall with Erika Kirk, which brought in less than 2 million viewers and ambivalence from many advertisers. But it didn’t stop the network from planning more town halls and debates, including “Has feminism failed women?” and “Does America need God?” It doesn’t seem like the ideological rebrand has made the outlet any worse off yet, but it doesn’t seem like it has helped, either.