Balgarianovinite.com
(Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Tony Dokoupil’s two-week summer vacation has produced an “awkward result” for CBS News, with his temporary replacement posting the CBS Evening News’ strongest weekly audience in months, according to figures cited by Oliver Darcy.
As was revealed in the Thursday edition of Status News, with Darcy calling the matter “an unexpected and somewhat awkward result for CBS News,” Matt Gutman averaged 4.1 million viewers during his first week filling in for Dokoupil, marking the program’s best performance in 17 weeks and the first time the broadcast has topped the 4 million-viewer mark since late March.
As Darcy noted, CBS Evening News has struggled to consistently reach that audience level since editor-in-chief Bari Weiss oversaw a major overhaul of the broadcast earlier this year, despite executives once considering it the “minimum acceptable audience” for the program. While Dokoupil hit an even 4 million viewers during the week of June 22, Status reported that he had not exceeded that threshold since averaging 4.2 million viewers during the week of March 30.
The figures also seem to have fueled questions about Dokoupil taking a two-week vacation less than a year into his tenure as anchor.
One source, who Darcy described as a veteran television executive, told Status, “Summer is when the second and third place networks try to make progress against the first place anchor who goes on vacation. In this case, the third place anchor took off for two weeks — a baffling move given his collapsing show — and his substitute outclassed him in the ratings.”
That same source added of Doukoupil’s absence that they’d “never seen this before,” and that the situation amounts to “another dagger in Tony’s neck.”
Furthermore, Darcy reported that within the CBS newsroom, employees were struck by how “likeable” and “personable” Gutman proved to be.
In April, Vanity Fair Washington correspondent and former Mediaite editor-in-chief Aidan McLaughlin published a profile for which he interviewed “more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders” about Dokoupil’s role at the network, with one correspondent describing him as a “useful idiot” in Weiss’ eyes, and another bashing him as “deeply lacking in self-awareness.”
The post ‘Awkward’: Tony Dokoupil’s Fill-In Delivers CBS Evening News’ Best Ratings in Four Months first appeared on Mediaite.
‘Awkward’: Tony Dokoupil’s Fill-In Delivers CBS Evening News’ Best Ratings in Four Months 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-08-07 03:41:38 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law