Tony Dokoupil was called into work on a Saturday – two days before his official start, no less – but his reaction to the emergency launch of “CBS Evening News” was hardly a scene from “Office Space.”
Though he was slated to begin his new job on Monday from San Francisco, Dokoupil took over the seat once occupied by Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather (and most recently Nora O’Donnell) for a special edition of the legacy network news broadcast to report on the U.S. extraction raid in Venezuela.
But unlike Peter Gibbons (played by Ron Livingston in the 1999 cult classic) Dokoupil was hardly complaining.
“Day One of ‘CBS Evening News’ was not Day One of a ten-day road trip live from San Francisco,” Dokoupil said in a video posted on the “Evening News” X account. “It was instead a Saturday live show based on what could be a decade-defining capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.”
Like his predecessors, Dokoupil seemed to understand the gravity of the moment.
“We’re a news show,” he continued. “I think that is actually a better launch than anything else we could have come up with. The road sometimes rises to meet you, and after all, we cover the news, and – this was news.”
The Dokoupil era at “CBS Evening News” began Saturday with a lengthy interview with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The interview was personally booked by CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, a person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
Dokoupil gave his first report as anchor – technically a special edition – from a from a CBS-owned-and-operated station out of San Francisco. He had been set to debut Monday as part of a new phase for the broadcast that included reporting from cities around the country.
The official launch of “CBS Evening News” will still take place Monday from New York. Dokoupil was expected to begin his tenure with reports from several U.S. locations in a venture dubbed “The Live From America Tour,” but that has been put on hold until later this week.
The broadcast launched amid heightened scrutiny of the network’s editorial direction. In an online message posted last week, Dokoupil said legacy news organizations have at times failed audiences by placing too much emphasis on advocates, academics and elites rather than the average American. CBS also recently released a statement outlining new editorial principles.
CBS News is in the early stages of a broader restructuring under Weiss. Weiss has introduced newsroom-wide meetings, public debates and internal critiques of traditional media practices. Her leadership has drawn increased attention following reports that a completed and vetted “60 Minutes” segment was delayed.
Dokoupil joined CBS News in 2016 and most recently served as a co-host of “CBS Mornings.”
