‘CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil’ No. 2 Producer Fired
The behind-the-scenes changes at “CBS Evening News” continue: Variety has confirmed that the newscast’s No. 2 producer, Javier Guzman, was fired after Wednesday night’s broadcast. It’s the latest wrinkle to emerge during new host Tony Dokoupil’s bumpy first week behind the anchor desk.
Kim Harvey remains the newscast’s executive producer. “The CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil” has made headlines almost every day since Dokoupil took over as anchor this week, a major change orchestrated by new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
The week began with CBS News being forced to scrap plans to send Dokoupil on a weeklong broadcast tour of the country after the U.S. invaded Venezuela — prompting Dokoupil to start his term early last Saturday, with a three-segment interview with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
On Monday, the first official broadcast of Dokoupil was marred by technical problems, according to reports VarietyDan D’Addario: “He babbled in confusion, then fell silent, as a segment on Sen. Mark Kelly preceded a segment on Gov. Tim Walz in the lineup — the kind of shift an anchor should be able to handle without painfully long seconds of dead air. ‘First day, big trouble here,’ Dokoupil said with obvious frustration.”
Then the show was also criticized on Tuesday for an unusual sign-off by Dokoupil – with a rather unconventional tribute to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Whatever you think of his politics, you have to admit that it’s an impressive resume,” Dokoupil said before showing AI memes that placed Rubio in other jobs, such as Prime Minister of Greenland, the head of Hilton Hotels and the Michelin Man. This move was seen as tone-deaf given the current global unrest and uncertainty over US actions in Venezuela.
Insiders say that Guzman’s departure has nothing to do with this, but is because the new broadcast is being restructured. Guzman had just taken on the role of senior broadcast producer at the CBS Evening News in August. Since January 2018, he previously served as a senior producer on the news.
Guzman joined CBS Evening News shortly after Jeff Glor took over as anchor in late 2017. One of Guzman’s first assignments was serving as senior producer on a revival of the CBS News series “Eye on America,” which featured long-form reporting and in-depth stories. Dokoupil contributed to the revival of ‘Eye on America’.
Glor was replaced by Norah O’Donnell in 2019; in January 2025, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois took over as co-anchors. They anchored their last newscast in December and were replaced by Dokoupil in early 2026. “CBS Evening News” has been in third place for years, well behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News.”
Guzman joined CBS News in 2017 as supervising producer for “CBSN: On Assignment.” Before that, he worked for a year as a senior producer at ‘Vice News Tonight’, the broadcast that Vice Media produced for HBO. Guzman’s other credits include stints at Fusion Media Group and as line/show producer on WNYC radio’s “The Takeaway.”
