PoliticsTotal Flop! CBS Anchor Tony Dokoupil Admits He Bombed in Gaffe-Filled Evening News Debut: 'First Day, Big Problems Here'
The former 'CBS Mornings' cohost kicked off his tenure as the new evenings news anchor on Monday, January 5.
Jan. 6 2026, Published 2:04 p.m. ET
Tony Dokoupil seemed a bit frazzled in a few awkward moments during his first night hosting the CBS Evening News on Monday, January 5.
The former CBS Mornings co-host started off by embarrassingly introducing himself twice before proceeding to mix up a segment transition. While attempting to segue into a story about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a photo of Arizona Senator Mark Kelly appeared on screen, leading Dokoupil to cut himself off.
"To other news, as you just heard from Jill, to other news now, to Governor Walz," he said, before Kelly's image popped up. "No, we're gonna do Mark Kelly."
Tony Dokoupil admitted he was having a rough first day.
Admitting his blunder, the broadcaster, 45, told viewers, "First day, first day, big problems here" while shaking his head and grinning.
He then asked the control room, "Are we going to Kelly here or are we going to go to Jonah Kaplan?" referring to the CBS correspondent reporting on the Walz piece.
After approximately five seconds of deafening silence as a slideshow of Kelly played on screen, Dokoupil finally began the segment about the Democratic senator.
Tony Dokoupil Confuses Minnesota With Michigan
The journalist mixed up Minnesota and Michigan's nicknames.
The gaffes didn't end there, though. Once it was time to address Walz’s announcement about ending his re-election bid, Dokoupil flubbed Minnesota's nickname.
"Now we go to Minnesota. A surprise announcement from the Great Lake State there today: Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, ended his run for reelection as governor of Minnesota, quite likely ending his political career as well," he said.
Minnesota is actually known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," while the Great Lake(s) State refers to Michigan.
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Who Is Tony Dokoupil?
Tony Dokoupil is married fellow journalist Katy Tur.
Dokoupil's promotion to evenings new anchor was announced in December 2025 by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who was reportedly in the newsroom for his bungling debut.
Prior to joining the network in 2016, the father-of-four — who's married to fellow news anchor Katy Tur — was a correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.
He also previously wrote for publications Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
Tony Dokoupil was promoted to evening news anchor in December.
'The Press Has Missed the Story'
The reporter recently slammed the mishandling of past news stories.
Ahead of his first day on the job, he previewed the revamped CBS Evening News with a video on social media that called out "elites" and the "legacy media" for mishandling various stories.
Specifically, he referenced the coverage on Hillary Clinton's emails and Hunter Biden's laptop.
The journalist also cited the reporting on "the president’s fitness for office," though it's unclear whether he was speaking about former President Joe Biden or current President Donald Trump.
"On too many stories, the press has missed the story," he said. "Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you."
