Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Is Tony Dokoupil the Next Walter Cronkite? CBS Evening News Sending Former Hair Model to News Desk — Watch His Past Auditions

Share

★ Make Showbiz411 your Preferred Source on Google

Bari Weiss is on the move at CBS News.

She’s kicked out John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois at CBS Evening News.

Her replacement? Tony Dokoupil, one of the CBS Mornings trio. Dokoupil was once a hair model, and doesn’t have much gravitas.

Is he the next Dan Rather? Walter Cronkite? No. Will this end in tears? Definitely.

Dokoupil’s main attraction to Bari Weiss is that he converted to Judaism in 2014. Then, last fall 2024, he had an on air blow up with author Ta-Nehisi Coates over anti-Israel book. Dokoupil was tough on Coates, whose book he called “extremist” in criticism of Israel’s right to exist. That made him a star in the eyes of then-CBS owner Shari Redstone, and now no doubt Weiss and new CBS owner David Ellison.

Dokoupil has subbed at the CBS Evening News as anchor over the years. Below you can see his past auditions. What do you think?

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News