The news anchor’s approval was cut short during the show because a cameraman suffered a “medical emergency.”
Tony Dokoupil is the new anchor of CBS Evening News
According to the network, Dokoupil, who has co-hosted CBS Morning with Gayle King and Nate Burleson since 2019, will move to the Evening News on January 5, 2026.
“CBS Evening News” host Tony Dokoupil was forced to shorten his live broadcast after his cameraman fell ill.
Dokoupil, 45, was broadcasting his final segment from Taiwan on Wednesday, May 13, when the news anchor temporarily halted the show after a staff member apparently suffered a medical attack on set.
“Is he OK? He’s going to take a little break,” Dokoupil said, according to a video shared by PacNews senior correspondent Dylan Byers. “We have a medical emergency here.”
After a while, Dokoupil was heard off-camera saying, “I’m calling a doctor.”
The news program then switched to CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman, who replaced Dokoupil and concluded the program.
“CBS Evening News” covered the incident in its X Post Wednesday night. The photographer’s identity has not been disclosed and no additional details regarding his health issues have been provided.
“Tonight, during the final segment of the CBS Evening News, a cameraman on set experienced an emergency,” the statement read. “Thankfully, he is well and recovering.”
The on-site incident comes after a rocky April for CBS Evening News. The station was revamped earlier this year with Dokoupil selected as the new anchor.
The Emmy-nominated news show fell into a ratings slump after drawing 3.771 million total viewers during the week of April 20, Adweek reported on April 29. The low viewer ratings, which were determined by combining big data and Nielsen program viewership ratings on the same day as the national live show, marked the third consecutive week that the number of viewers for “CBS Evening News” fell below 4 million.
By comparison, CBS’ network news stations “ABC World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News” averaged 8.537 million and 6.168 million viewers, respectively, during the same period.
In a statement to USA TODAY at the time, CBS officials rejected the characterization of “Evening News” ratings, noting that the news program’s viewership grew 2% under Dokoupil and was the only program among its competitors to increase month-over-month from March to April of this year.
“This is always going to take time,” the CBS official said. “The show before Tony took over was in a really bad place late last year. It’s a tough job to grow the audience, but it’s encouraging to see the numbers up (year-on-year).”
