Dokoupil’s Ratings ‘Dagger’

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Tony Dokoupil’s summer vacation has delivered an unexpected and somewhat awkward result for CBS News: the program’s substitute delivered the show’s best ratings in months, Status has learned.

Earlier this week, when ratings for the prior week were finalized, CBS News recorded a rare victory. For the first time since March, the "CBS Evening News" cleanlysurpassed 4 million viewers—a key benchmark that the embattled program, overhauled by Bari Weiss earlier this year, has repeatedly—and embarrassingly—failed to hit.

There was just one caveat: The ratings victory was not Tony Dokoupil's to claim. Instead, it belonged to Matt Gutman, who has been substituting for Dokoupil while the anchor is out on a two-week summer vacation.

During Gutman's first week in the anchor chair in July, he averaged 4.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings data obtained by Status, delivering the best-rated week for the "CBS Evening News" in 17 weeks. While Dokoupil…

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