“CBS Evening News” achieved its largest audience since 2021 on Monday, marking a major victory for the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
The program reeled in 6.4 million viewers on Jan. 12 and averaged 803,000 viewers in the key 25-to-54-year age demographic, CBS News’ public relations team announced on Thursday. The major milestone for the network came months after liberals raged about Weiss stepping into her current role in October.
The program has been hosted by Tony Dokoupil since Jan. 5, weeks after Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson left the program.
RATINGS: @CBSEveningNews with Tony Dokoupil delivers 6.4 million total viewers on Jan. 19 – its largest audience for the broadcast since 2021. The CBS News flagship evening broadcast also averaged 803K in the key adults 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel…
— CBS News PR (@CBSNewsPress) January 22, 2026
Liberals raged at Weiss’s upcoming leadership role in October, complaining about her pro-Israel stance and failure to subscribe to and promote far-left ideologies. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes implied she aligns with President Donald Trump, while transgender activist Alejandra Caraballo accused Weiss of appealing to “existing prejudices” that are held by so-called “oligarchs.”
Bari Weiss and JD Vance are very similar figures with very similar skills.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 11:58 PM
The Nation columnist John Ganz also referred to Weiss as a “mediocre vulgarian” who has “damaged” American institutions.
Dokoupil also received backlash from liberals after he said the legacy media has put “too much weight” into the views of elites over the average American. He also named the reports on Hunter Biden’s laptop, former President Joe Biden’s fitness for office and the now-debunked Russia collusion allegations as examples of stories where the legacy media lost the public’s trust.
“I did not expect this from Tony,” former CNN reporter John Harwood said in a Jan. 1 X post.
i did not expect this from Tony https://t.co/uA4XnR9ABP
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 1, 2026
Larry Sabato, the director of Center 4 Politics at the University of Virginia, sarcastically scoffed at Dokoupil’s statement, saying that ignoring academics and elites will bring a return to measles and beliefs in conspiracies.
“Absolutely! You wouldn’t want “academics and elites” who have actually studied a subject to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we’re seeing the resurgence of measles, and the widespread belief in almost non-existent vote fraud, among many other great leaps backward in the Trump era. Cronkite would be so very proud of you,” Sabato said.
Absolutely! You wouldn’t want “academics and elites” who have actually studied a subject to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we’re seeing the resurgence of measles, and the widespread belief in almost non-existent vote fraud, among many other… https://t.co/Ouodl7Flx0
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) January 1, 2026
Andy Revkin, a former reporter at The New York Times, accused Dokoupil of disparaging past reporting by CBS News.
Dokoupil challenged prominent Democrats on-air during his time on “CBS Mornings,” including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who pressed him in March about his party’s lack of trust in his leadership. He also got into a heated discussion with Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in October about voting to shut the government down over healthcare.
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