CBS Evening News is on track for its lowest-rated first quarter of the 21st century, according to early Nielsen data obtained by the Daily Mail.
The once-esteemed broadcast is reeling in just 4.3 million viewers a night, down 7 percent from last year.
At the time, the show was already struggling due to a dual-anchor experiment that sent more than 1.2 million viewers astray.
New Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has since elevated former CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil to the Evening News anchor chair. Dokoupil, 54, assumed the position in early January, right around where the ratings start.
Two seasoned television news executives who spoke with the Mail Wednesday called the statistics startling, given the network's already present decline.
The show is also down 18 percent in the important 25-54 audience demographic, which is highly coveted by advertisers.
'It is so sad to see CBS become the laughingstock of the industry,' one of the executives said when asked about the preliminary ratings, which pertain to January, February, and most of March.
'Obviously, it's a disaster,' the other said. 'The audience is responding to the bad decisions that have been made. And that's why they're tuning out.'
CBS Evening News is recording an average of just 4.3 million viewers a night, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen. The showing is the show's worst this century.
The ratings coincide with the so-far unsuccessful tenure of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, a center-right legacy media critic.
Weiss, 41, is roughly six months into her editor-in-chief campaign.
Her stewardship of 'CBS Mornings' has been unsuccessful as well, according to the new ratings.
The show, now without Dokoupil, is down 13 percent from the same quarter last year to 1.8 million viewers. The show's 25-54 audience situation is even worse, down 28 percent year-over-year to 268,000, according to Nielsen.
For reference, both ABC's 'Good Morning America' and NBC's 'Today' average around 3 million total viewers, with less than 100,000 between them. Both shows posted year-over-year gains in terms of total viewers.
Gayle King's CBS Mornings, meanwhile, remains a distant third, with the needle moving in the opposite direction.
The situation surrounding primetime is similar, with Dokoupil dropping viewers year-over-year as ABC's David Muir and Nightly News' Tom Llamas draw more.
Muir, for instance, is currently commanding 8.7 million total viewers and 1.1 million A25-54 viewers, putting him overwhelmingly in first-place.
Both executives attributed Dokoupil’s failures on that front to failed leadership.
The once-esteemed broadcast is down 7 percent from last year. At the time, the show was already struggling due to a dual-anchor experiment that featured Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, both of whom have left the network.
The numbers are concerning, according to insiders in the industry. 'CBS has now become a NASCAR event with people just watching to see the cars crash,' one exec told the Mail Wednesday.
'CBS has now become a NASCAR event with people just watching to see the cars crash - Bari Weiss has effectively removed all value from the once-enviable brand,' the first source said.
'Given CBS Sports is seeing record highs - there's no question the ratings problem at CBS is entirely Bari's making.'
The ratings put Weiss under further scrutiny after a series of moves widely seen as missteps within the industry. The former New York Times writer - a fierce critic of modern legacy media - has never headed a major newsroom.
The Mail has approached CBS News for comment.