Tony Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” grappled with a fresh round of missteps over the Fourth of July weekend — the latest snafus that have dogged Bari Weiss’ overhaul of the Tiffany Network’s news programming.
On Friday, the last-place news program — which was relaunched in January with Dokoupil taking the anchor seat — mistakenly aired an image of rapper Kanye West instead of Sean “Diddy” Combs in its report that President Trump was mulling a pardon of Combs.
The Post obtained a screenshot of the image CBS used of West when he made a surprise appearance at last year’s trial for Combs, who is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being convicted in a federal sex-crimes case.
The error was quietly fixed in the “Evening News’” West Coast broadcast and for digital and streaming, but a source said it is an example of how short-staffed the show is.
CBS News declined to comment, but a network source said it was a “one-off error” that had “nothing to do with short staffing.”
“They are drinking from a fire hose,” a network source said. “This sort of thing should not happen. Where is the quality control?”
The network had been busy prepping its live three-hour, primetime special dubbed “The Great American Block Party 250,” hosted by Dokoupil and Nischelle Turner.
Insiders said more than 100 staffers were pulled in to air July 4 broadcasts, which would include performances from the Zac Brown Band, Vanilla Ice, Jon Batiste and the Goo Goo Dolls – with Dokoupil anchoring live from the Washington Monument.
Things went south when President Trump issued an evacuation on the National Mall because of incoming thunderstorms. Dokoupil and Turner were holed up nearby as the storm swept through — off the air for an hour as they waited for their bosses, Weiss and News President Tom Cibrowski — to make a decision on how to proceed.
Calling it “amateur hour,” the source said: “Tony and Nischelle waited one hour in the rain for Bari or Tom to tell them to go to the studio.”
A network source said the anchors weren’t waiting for word from higher ups, but simply waiting in the case that Secret Service would let them return to the Mall.
While the duo avoided getting drenched, backup anchor Kelly O’Grady ran the broadcast from the D.C. studio, throwing occasionally to weatherman Rob Marciano, who was stationed in New York’s historic Fraunces Tavern.
Dokoupil and Turner finally returned to the studio, joining O’Grady around 9:45 pm – an hour and 45 minutes into the three-hour telecast. From that point, CBS aired musical acts from various cities taking part in the event, cutting back to the trio in the studio. Trump eventually took the stage at 11:15 p.m. to give his speech– an hour and 15 minutes after originally planned.
A spokesman for CBS News brushed off any notion that the broadcast was sent scrambling, saying: “This is nonsense. Despite the weather evacuation, our exceptional team never missed a step. We seamlessly activated our pre-planned weather contingencies to deliver great coverage for our audience.”
Some staffers were “mortified” by the broadcast, which entailed long, grueling hours to prepare, according to a source. The primetime show appeared to be scrubbed from CBS’ streaming service Paramount+ where it had been live-streamed, as well as on CBS.com.
It is unclear why the program had not been posted, but one source offered that the network was likely “embarassed” by it.
CBS did not comment, but a network source insisted that the video was not posted due to licensing agreements — although this did not seem to be a problem for rival networks ABC and NBC, which have since their own specials online.
The person said making matters worse was Cibrowski’s congratulatory email, which was sent to over 100 staffers involved in the “disastrous” production.
“It would have been better if they said nothing,” the source said. “We knew it was sh-t.”
The person added that Dokoupil’s problems on “Evening News” are related to the fact that it doesn’t have planning or “futures meetings” like they have at rival outlets, which has handicapped the show significantly.
Part of the problem is that that there aren’t enough producers– just two or three – and they are overwhelmed. Another issue is that the show lacks strong leadership from Dokoupil, his executive producer Kim Harvey and bosses Cibrowski and Weiss, the person opined, noting that no one is making swift decisions.
“It’s a rudderless ship,” the source concluded.
A CBS News source disputed that characterization, citing the show’s second-quarter ratings which averaged 3.9 million totoal viewers, marking a 1% year-over-year increase.
Meanwhile, NBC aired its annual Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular and featured a performance from ‘The Voice’ winner Alexia Jayy, while ABC broadcasted the “Disney Celebrates America: Nashville’s Star-Spangled Bash,” with performances from the likes of Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw and Nick Jonas.
The snafus are part of a collection of missteps at the ailing “Evening News” program. Dokoupil kicked off his first show on Jan. 5 of this year with a teleprompter failure – and the hits have been coming since then.
More recently, Dokoupil had to broadcast from Taiwan after failing to secure a visa to cover the US-China summit in Beijing in May. During one of the broadcasts, the show’s cameraman suddenly collapsed from exhaustion, The Post first reported, giving way to whispers that Dokoupil is “cursed.”
“If Tony didn’t have anything but bad luck, he’d have no luck,” sniffed a CBS insider.
