CBS News has moved up Tony Dokoupil’s debut as host of Evening News to Saturday following the Trump Administration’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. 

Dokoupil was set to start hosting EN on Monday from Miami, as part of a 10-city tour to celebrate his move into the anchor seat. That plan was changed after Maduro’s capture, with CBS posting on X the “Live From America” tour would begin “later this week.”

He will make his hosting debut from San Francisco before going to New York City for his official launch on Monday. Dokoupil’s first broadcast will be at 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Variety’s Brian Steinberg reported CBS “will scuttle, for now” Dokoupil’s tour earlier on Saturday.

CBS News had announced the 10-city tour in a press release on December 18.

“Tony’s superpower is listening to people. We want to serve Americans in the best way possible by meeting them where they are every night – and we’ll do that with this cross-country kick-off tour,” CBS Evening News executive producer Kim Harvey said at the time.

Beyond Miami and SF, Dokoupil was going to anchor from the following cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. He was then going to wrap the nationwide tour up by settling into the CBS News studio in NYC.

As you would expect, CBS has been heavily promoting Dokoupil heading into his anchoring debut. He called for viewers to make him “earn” their trust in an op-ed, and CBS filmed a segment at Grand Central Station where Dokoupil asked people if they knew who he was.

Dokoupil and CBS also unveiled their 5 principles for reporting on Friday. Those principles — including “We Love America” and “We Work For You” — led to teasing from some media critics online.

His move into the anchor seat comes as CBS tries to close the gap with ABC and NBC in the evening news battle. ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir was the highest-rated evening news show for the ninth year in a row in 2026, pulling in an average of 7.84 million viewers; NBC Nightly News — which switched to anchor Tom Llamas midway through the year — grabbed the silver medal with 6.20 million viewers, and CBS Evening News placed third with 4.05 million viewers each night.

Editor’s note: This report originally stated that CBS had scrapped Dokoupil’s introductory tour. That was not accurate and has been corrected.

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