Being behind the anchor desk on a national newscast is not as easy as it looks. Tony Dokoupil found that out the hard way this week. Dokoupil, who was formerly a co-host of CBS Mornings, is now the new anchor of the CBS Evening News. It's a prestigious perch that comes with a lot of visibility and responsibility. The 45-year-old had a couple of unfortunate, spontaneous missteps during his debut nights; however, both of which drew widespread attention.
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Teleprompters Can Be Tricky
Dokoupil's first problem came right out of the gate. There was a teleprompter malfunction of some kind. Per Parade, it seemed to throw him off stride. Dokoupil blurted out, "First day! First day, big problems here." The mess-up probably just caught him briefly off-guard. Machines don't always do what we want them to.
Dokoupil Had Some Weepy Moments on His Second Night
A discussion of the place where Dokoupil grew up brought the newsman to unabashed, hard-to-stop tears. He was shown away from behind the anchor desk as part of the broadcast's Live From America road trip. Dokoupil was reminiscing on-air about his youth in Miami. The emotional clip is on Instagram.
Speaking to a reporter from CBS News Miami, Dokoupil shared, "It makes me emotional, it's so funny. You only have one childhood, right? Florida is where I grew up. We didn't get a lot of sleep, so ... my grandmother's here, my father, my mother, my aunts and uncles, cousins, and it's where I would have spent all of my childhood."
Dokoupil went on, "But we left because my father got in some trouble with business. We laugh about it now, but he was a drug dealer and he went to jail."
Several times, he paused to wipe tears from his eyes. The onslaught of emotion was very unexpected for him, apparently.
He Explained Why He Got So Overwhelmed
Dokoupil let viewers in on why his composure was so badly shaken. He said, "The reason it's so emotional for me is because I feel like I was robbed of the full Miami experience. People are gonna think this is so crazy, but this should have been my home for the whole stretch. To have it and then to lose it, it just kind of rocks me. I didn't expect to feel that, but whenever I'm here, it really does feel deeply like home and I wish I could stay at home."
