Top ‘CBS Evening News’ producer may be on chopping block as ratings plummet to new low

Viewership for “CBS Evening News” plummeted to new lows and sparked predictions that the days may be numbered for a top producer on the show.

As viewers dropped to below 4 million for the program anchored by Tony Dokoupil, one CBS News source told the New York Post it may be time to “sacrifice” staff, such as executive producer Kim Harvey, to “the ratings gods.”

“The show has lost over half a million viewers in three months. You’ve got to sacrifice somebody to the ratings gods,” the insider told the outlet of the ratings freefall for the network’s flagship show.

“The overall audience for the program for the five days ended March 13 stood at nearly 3.83 million, according to data from Nielsen, and at 468,000 among viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers,” Variety reported. “Quarter to date as of March 12, ‘CBS Evening News’ has shed 15% of its viewership in the critical 25-to-54 demo, the audience most sought-after by advertisers in news programming, compared with the year-earlier period.”

“On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.”

That changes now. The new CBS Evening News… pic.twitter.com/NKdvRJjYCS

— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) January 1, 2026

CBS News sources told the New York Post that the declining numbers do not bode well for Harvey.

“It’s pretty terrible. Once you’re under 4 million, you’ve got to be worried that you’re in a death spiral,” a CBS insider said. “If they can’t retain an audience in the middle of a war, God help you when the war ends.”

“It feels like a hot mess every night,” a second source said.

Other criticisms have been that the program, previously anchored by Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, has become “too soft,” with one complaining about the closing segments featuring cute animals.

“It’s animal story overload,” one source told the Post. “Kim’s thing is animals. She’s turning Tony into the animal anchor.”

“The one thing that CBS had going for it was enterprise and investigative journalism, and most nights, they are not leveraging this,” one insider told the Post. “The whole network has gone soft.”

According to Variety, Norah O’Donnell ended her tenure at the show in 2024, boasting an audience of nearly 5.4 million. In contrast, “Dokoupil’s first five days, from Jan. 5-9, won an average of nearly 4.17 million, according to data from Nielsen — and in a subsequent week, he even nabbed an audience of 4.6 million.”

“The slide in audience comes after CBS News took Dokoupil around the nation and into the Middle East just after the conflict erupted between Iran and the U.S. and Israel,” the outlet noted, adding that some executives at CBS have attributed the ratings drop to the recent daylight savings time change.

CBS News has denied that the show’s producer may be on the way out.

“It is ludicrous to suggest that a show’s executive producer could be replaced because we changed a camera angle,” a network spokesperson told the Post. “We’re excited about the new version of the CBS Evening News, and thrilled that our viewers are, too.”

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Frieda Powers

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Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.

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