Right here’s hoping Tony Dokoupil absolutely unplugs throughout his day without work.
On Thursday, Oliver Darcy’s Standing reported that “CBS Night Information” achieved a “uncommon victory” by scoring its strongest weekly viewers rankings in months.
The present averaged 4.1 million viewers for the week of July 27, marking the present’s greatest efficiency in 17 weeks and the primary time it has exceeded the 4-million-viewer mark since late March, in response to Nielsen rankings knowledge obtained by Standing.
However there’s additionally a reasonably “awkward” caveat.
Dia Dipasupil through Getty Photos
Dokoupil, the present’s anchor, had nothing to do with it. He’s on a two-week trip, and CBS Information chief correspondent Matt Gutman is filling in for him.
Dokoupil hit an excellent 4 million viewers in the course of the week of June 22, Standing stories, however hasn’t pulled something increased since March.
The outlet notes that the 4 million views determine does maintain significance.
Earlier CBS executives thought of it “the minimal acceptable” quantity, and that the present has “struggled” to retain that benchmark ever since controversial editor-in-chief Bari Weiss handpicked Dokoupil for the anchoring gig amid her MAGA-friendly takeover of the community.
Lorenzo Bevilaqua through Getty Photos
And hey, should you occurred to observe Dokoupil’s first day on the job in actual time earlier this 12 months — you may make loads of assumptions about why viewers aren’t tremendous jazzed about him on the helm. It appears his colleagues aren’t thrilled about him as nicely.
Gutman’s spike in viewership can also be prompting some consultants within the trade to query why Dokoupil determined to take a two-week trip when he solely began the job in January.
“Summer time is when the second and third place networks attempt to make progress in opposition to the primary place anchor who goes on trip,” a supply described as a “veteran tv govt” advised Standing. “On this case the third place anchor took off for 2 weeks — a baffling transfer given his collapsing present — and his substitute outclassed him within the rankings.”
That very same supply added that Dokoupil “missed” a possibility to achieve extra traction and that the state of affairs is “one other dagger in Tony’s neck.”
A CBS spokesperson advised The Impartial that Dokoupil has been “constantly trending up” and that the “community has confidence in Tony.”
It additionally insisted that assuming that viewers simply merely choose Gutman over Dokoupil is deceptive. The spokesperson stated that each one the community’s newscasts had increased numbers on the week of July 27 than July 20.
“The week of seven/27 simply generated extra information, which is why all numbers had been up for each present,” the spokesperson stated. “Claiming it has one thing to do with a Matt/Tony cut up is fake, identical to it will be to recommend ABC Information rising viewers has to do with a Whit [Johnson]/David [Muir] cut up.”
