Tony Dokoupil broadcasts from Taipei, 1,070 miles from Beijing — Cbs News
Tony Dokoupil will anchor cbs news from Taipei after failing to get his Chinese visa in time to cover President Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing. The change puts CBS Evening News about 1,070 miles from the city where NBC News’s Tom Llamas and ABC News’s David Muir will broadcast.
CBS News had prepared for Dokoupil to give viewers similar coverage from the region before changing plans at the last minute. Two CBS correspondents are still traveling with Trump in China, so the network’s coverage will be split between Taipei and the trip itself.
Taipei and Beijing coverage
CBS promoted the broadcast by saying Dokoupil is ready to anchor CBS Evening News live from the region. The move shifts the anchor away from Beijing, where the competing evening-news anchors will be based, and leaves the network relying on correspondents already on the ground with Trump.
The distance between Taipei and Beijing is about 1,070 miles, a gap that makes the assignment change more than a simple studio swap. CBS is still sending two correspondents with Trump in China, but the anchor’s absence from Beijing means the network will not match the same location coverage used by Llamas and Muir.
Dokoupil and CBS News
The visa problem lands after a rough run for Dokoupil and CBS Evening News. Ratings for the week of May 4 showed 3.7 million total viewers and 473,000 viewers ages 25-54, compared with ABC World News Tonight at 8.2 million total viewers and 976,000 in the same demo and NBC Nightly News at 6.1 million total viewers and 903,000.
Dokoupil’s debut in January drew attention for gaffes and awkward moments, and he later said on air, “First day, big problems here.” Last year, Bari Weiss took over CBS News in an effort to make it more Trump-friendly, and the network’s latest trip coverage now arrives under that pressure.
Semafor reported that it remains unclear whether the visa trouble came from a late application or another problem. For viewers following the Trump-Xi trip, the practical change is simple: CBS will have its anchor in Taipei while its correspondents stay with the president in China.
