CBS Evening News

[GodfreyGR 812]

I thought it was a solid get for him to have Secretary Hegseth- perhaps interviews like that and the resulting clips on Socials and affiliates can help drum up *some* new viewership. But 2 commercial breaks during the interview was excessive; and if it’s a live interview. Throw something up on the screen saying it’s live! You have the technology!

[l_miro 245]

10 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

Dokoupil, anchoring the CBS Evening News two nights before his scheduled launch, is doing a long live interview with former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth. It feels like two frat bros hanging out, complete with Dokoupil gleefully repeating Hegseth's "Mauro effed around and found out" line. The interview was so long that it had two commercial breaks during it.

 

 

The lead of a news network is doing exactly what he should be, an extensive live interview with the US Secretary of War, or former Fox host if you're childish, who is fresh out of overseing an important and consequential military event. 

 

 

 

[NowBergen 924]

20 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

I thought it was a solid get for him to have Secretary Hegseth- perhaps interviews like that and the resulting clips on Socials and affiliates can help drum up *some* new viewership. But 2 commercial breaks during the interview was excessive; and if it’s a live interview. Throw something up on the screen saying it’s live! You have the technology!

It's already being reported that Bari Weiss arranged it, to no one's surprise.

[MediaZone4K 2661]

on a positive note, the warm colored background behind Tony looks pretty nice, the warm lighting and smooth HD are pretty complementary as well. The best set the broadcast had in recent memory was Nora's DC 

[Geoffrey 958]

59 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

on a positive note, the warm colored background behind Tony looks pretty nice, the warm lighting and smooth HD are pretty complementary as well. The best set the broadcast had in recent memory was Nora's DC 

I'm pretty sure that was a virtual set at KPIX designed from the outgoing look. I would imagine we'll see a different look tomorrow.

[HanSolo 467]

15 hours ago, l_miro said:

 

The lead of a news network is doing exactly what he should be, an extensive live interview with the US Secretary of War, or former Fox host if you're childish, who is fresh out of overseing an important and consequential military event. 

 

 

 

Maybe if he actually pushed back on the blatant lies and misinformation. And it’s not remotely childish to point out the SecDef has zero qualifications for the role. That hardly makes him unique in this regime, to be sure. But someone who never was in a command position and has expertise you could fit in a thimble should be scrutinized, not treated like a buddy at a bar. 

[PelicanMan 22]

On 1/3/2026 at 11:59 AM, nathannah said:

They have confirmed that he'll be on EN tonight, and Deadline confirms that he'll be at KPIX and the 10-in-10 city tour is 'delayed'.

 

ETA source/location

So basically, he's going to do the EN from 10 CBS-owned stations, right?

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

1 hour ago, PelicanMan said:

So basically, he's going to do the EN from 10 CBS-owned stations, right?

 

Plus Cincinnati, home to Sinclair's WKRC-TV.

[Geoffrey 958]

Photo from their social media posts... I had a feeling they might spin the desk around. 

 

Also, the logo on that desk is the old CBS News logo. I wonder if it's new or if it's from an earlier era. Almost looks temporary to me. I'm interested to see if they use any of the screens on the set on the other side of the cameras (they use this space for some streaming shows, right?).

 

[l_miro 245]

19 hours ago, HanSolo said:

Maybe if he actually pushed back on the blatant lies and misinformation. And it’s not remotely childish to point out the SecDef has zero qualifications for the role. That hardly makes him unique in this regime, to be sure. But someone who never was in a command position and has expertise you could fit in a thimble should be scrutinized, not treated like a buddy at a bar. 

 

What blatant lies and misinformation, specifically, were not pushed back on? Enumerate them.

 

Also, Hegseth just oversaw a successfull mission while being totally and completely unqualified according to some online rando, and factually: he was a platoon leader in Iraq, and couneterinsurgency instructor in Afghanistan, it's okay it's patently obvious you have no clue what that means. He also has a political degree from Princeton, and Public Policy degree from Harvard. How was Pete Buttagage qualified to be the transport secretary with an art degree and a history degree?

 

I take what I said back. Not just childish, childish ill informed tantrums 

 

On 1/4/2026 at 5:50 PM, NowBergen said:

It's already being reported that Bari Weiss arranged it, to no one's surprise.

 

as we all know, this is only bad if Bari did it now that she's not on our side, and it's never ever happened before. Not like CNN's chief Pentagon shill Barbara Starr did it for decades while lying us into Iraq.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

Photo from their social media posts... I had a feeling they might spin the desk around. 

 

Also, the logo on that desk is the old CBS News logo. I wonder if it's new or if it's from an earlier era. Almost looks temporary to me. I'm interested to see if they use any of the screens on the set on the other side of the cameras (they use this space for some streaming shows, right?).

 

 

I LOVE the Lowe's 'Builder Special' wood they used, it gives the anchor desk a nice jooj to complement my fellow, handsome Slavbro

 

 

[GodfreyGR 812]

40 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

Photo from their social media posts... I had a feeling they might spin the desk around. 

 

Also, the logo on that desk is the old CBS News logo. I wonder if it's new or if it's from an earlier era. Almost looks temporary to me. I'm interested to see if they use any of the screens on the set on the other side of the cameras (they use this space for some streaming shows, right?).

 

Early shots of the broadcast... You see nothing of the Desk. Might be just to have a desk for Tony to put his laptop and coffee cup on for the broadcast.

 

Music, Set, OTS graphics, They're going back to the Dan Rather era with this.

[Recovering Producer 410]

Reverting to the Dan Rather era music is certainly a choice.

 

Maybe, Tony's replacement in a couple years will revive the James Horner composed Katie Couric 2006-2011 music.

[JosiahCubed 301]

And the 1991-2006 music is back, in addition to the updated logo and graphics.

[Geoffrey 958]

I like the old Dan Rather music (headlines and open). I like the camera shot. I don't love that Tony's picture appeared in the open and I don't like the bug and lower-third, especially the intentionally unaligned nature.

[gsrecaps 22]

Here it is in action: 

 

[GodfreyGR 812]

2 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

I don't love that Tony's picture appeared in the open and I don't like the bug and lower-third, especially the intentionally unaligned nature.

Agreed. Neither are a major deal breaker for me though. The L3 is about what I expect for CBS at this point, but wish they would reduce the CBSEN logo by a third or half. Most people watching know what they are watching. NBC does the logo well by rotating the Peacock, NN, and full Nightly logo... CBS could learn a thing or two there.

[Geoffrey 958]

Tony wasn't sure at one point which story was next and it seemed to take forever to get clarification. He drew attention to it. Ever since that moment, he's seemed very flustered, even two blocks later, still speaking very quickly, tripping over his words, and even getting Dr. Jon LaPook to speak pretty quickly.

 

For the second block, they returned for Tony to read just one story, then tease the same story they had teased in the first tease.

 

I get that they were planning on doing this broadcast from San Francisco until news dictated two days ago that they do news today but I was expecting a more polished product for the big debut.

 

Edit: Bafflingly, they closed with a segment called "Only in America," a story read live by Tony, about something a small town did to raise money last winter. Last winter! And we thought the Evening News of 2025 was taking their time to report stories...

Edited January 6 by Geoffrey

[MediaZone4K 2661]

14 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

Photo from their social media posts... I had a feeling they might spin the desk around. 

 

Also, the logo on that desk is the old CBS News logo. I wonder if it's new or if it's from an earlier era. Almost looks temporary to me. I'm interested to see if they use any of the screens on the set on the other side of the cameras (they use this space for some streaming shows, right?).

 

 

13 hours ago, JosiahCubed said:

And the 1991-2006 music is back, in addition to the updated logo and graphics.

Positives: Loving the Dan Rather era score, headlines theme and logo font's returns. They've constantly recycled the *1987-1991 theme so I'm glad that this lives again. I hope CBS News Special Reports get this music again. When Tony is eventually replaced, I hope they keep it.

 

Love using the newsroom as the broadcast set, an updated version of the Dan Rather era. Tony's desk looks like Rather's. I'd say Tony's set looks even better than the sets used by Nora and Maurice/John. 

 

CONS:

 

L3 graphics are boxy and ugly. The format is a copy of the competition. Everything is breaking news in the intro, but at least everything in the A block wasn't "Breaking". 

 

The camera seemed to bounce whenever it came back to Tony's main shot on set.

 

Overall, I'd say Maurice and John's broadcast was superior, but I do prefer the set and news theme on Tony's show. I wonder what the CBS evening news with Nate Burleson will look like in 2027

 

Even ET is leading with Tony's debut.

Edited January 6 by MediaZone4K

[Geoffrey 958]

1 minute ago, MediaZone4K said:

The camera seemed to bounce whenever it came back to Tony's main shot on set.

 

Agree with most of your takes, and this one really bothered me. The shot always started with Tony centered, then quickly panned to the left as the OTS animated in. Seemingly half the time, the camera went too far and had to slowly come back to better frame. 

 

Is there any chance the "headlines" music was sped up? They definitely want this broadcast to be more energetic and lively (I still think Tony's talking speed picked up after he got flustered) but the music felt faster than I remembered.

[GodfreyGR 812]

2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Now THIS is a news desk! Seriously, hoping that the one they found at a Savers and refurbished with $20 of supplies was just temporary since they thought they had a few more days before the new set would be used. By the way- how much did the John/Maurice set cost to be used for only a year?

 

2 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

dit: Bafflingly, they closed with a segment called "Only in America," a story read live by Tony, about something a small town did to raise money last winter. Last winter! And we thought the Evening News of 2025 was taking their time to report stories...

This is not what anyone in America wants to see on their TV during the dinner hour.

Edited January 6 by GodfreyGR
Edited my typo!

[C Block 1611]

It's not the 1996 Rather desk, but it has to be another desk from that same era – looks like maybe the Up to the Minute desk? Either way, that desk is for sure a hand-me-down and not new.

[MediaZone4K 2661]

On 1/5/2026 at 9:13 PM, GodfreyGR said:

Now THIS is a news desk! Seriously, hoping that the one they found at a Savers and refurbished with $20 of supplies was just temporary since they thought they had a few more days before the new set would be used. By the way- how much did the John/Maurice set cost to be used for only a year?

 

This is not what anyone in America wants to see on their TV during the dinner hour.

Yeah, that was a bizarre story choice for an inaugural broadcast.

 

Hoping they eventually play the climactic portion of the Rather theme.

Edited January 7 by MediaZone4K

[Yayan4155 41]

Just info here. 1991-2006 CBS Evening News theme is the longest-running CBS Evening News theme, lasting for 14 years, 9 months, and 25 days (November 11, 1991 to September 5, 2006) and most remembered CBS News theme at the time (it was also used by CBS Morning News during similar timeframe). It is the theme that associated with the majority of Dan Rather era as the anchor of the newscast (although 1987-1991 theme also associated with Rather's era, their usage were much short-lived than 1991 one). So, if anyone watching Dan Rather's tenure as the anchor of the program during 1991 to 2005, anyone will remember this theme. It is composed by Patterson, Walz and Fox Music Productions. Although it contains the signature melody of the 1987 theme by Trivers/Myers, all the other music is original.

 

Fun Fact: In the first six years of Dan Rather's tenure as the anchor of CBS Evening News (1981 to 1987), CBS News adhered to a policy, imposed by then-CBS President Frank Stanton, that prohibited the use of music. To distinguish itself and demonstrate that it used original footage, CBS chose to forgo music entirely.

Edited January 6 by Yayan4155

[obxwatcher 23]

Tonight’s broadcast almost felt like a soft opening of a restaurant. It had its opening night problems and I didn’t like it when Tony threw the producers under the bus on that snafu. A little unprofessional and unlike him.
 

I appreciate putting the newsroom back in the mix and felt like an old Peter Jennings broadcast and going back to the 90s theme. Props to when David Muir did the same. I just hate large video screens now. (Looking at you Today and Nightly News )

 

Hopefully if Tony is out on the road, the kinks will be fixed. And by all means, go over to Ethan Allen or somewhere expensive and buy the new anchor a nice desk.

 

[AaronQ 309]

On 1/3/2026 at 12:13 AM, Yankees4life said:

Don't forget News 12!!

And NECN