Overview
- Dokoupil officially premiered Monday after an early Jan. 3 special on U.S. action in Venezuela, opening with a pledge to put viewers ahead of advertisers, politicians and corporate owners and saying he would be more accountable and transparent than Walter Cronkite.
- The rollout drew swift criticism, including online clashes over his dismissal of elite analysis, with reactions from Andy Cohen, Don Dahler, Keith Olbermann, Sean Spicer and Megyn Kelly; his extended interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was faulted as too soft.
- CBS had planned a 10-city “Live From America” tour tied to the rebrand; the kickoff was pushed from Monday, with the network indicating it will start in Miami this week after leasing a 14-seat jet for the trip, a move that drew internal grumbling in some reports.
- Weiss’s Dec. 20 decision to pull a 60 Minutes segment on conditions at an El Salvador mega-prison remains a flashpoint inside CBS, especially after the piece aired in Canada and circulated online despite the U.S. broadcast being shelved.
- The reboot comes as CBS grapples with declining evening-news audiences, multiple anchor changes since 2017 and lingering scrutiny after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a prior 60 Minutes interview.