Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC is a weekly American television news magazine reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC and Telemundo. Created in 1992, it was initially the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but evolved to focus mainly on true crime stories with only occasional episodes that focus on other topics. The program airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Special weekend encore editions also air at 9:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m.. One or two-hour feature-length editions sometimes air on any given scheduled evening, often to fill vacancies in the primetime schedule on the program's respective nights due to program cancellations. In February 2021, the program aired its first ever docuseries, "The Widower", a five-hour true crime saga about a man who married six women, four of whom died.
History
Early
Dateline is historically notable for its longevity on NBC, compared to the fifteen newsmagazines the network tried from the mid-70s until its debut. Each of these earlier shows ended ignominiously, often in the same year, or even the month they premiered, and were barely promoted, much less needed, during NBC's ratings domination of entertainment programming in the 1980s. The creation of Dateline also served to smooth relations with original anchor Jane Pauley, who had been controversially pushed out from Today and seen her own primetime make-up vehicle, the light news-focused Real Life with Jane Pauley, poorly paired with a tabloid newsmagazine, Exposè.The program debuted on March 31, 1992, initially airing only on Tuesdays, with Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips serving as its co-anchors. Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric joined the program when the previously separate newsmagazine Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric was converted into Dateline Wednesday. Gradually, the program expanded with the addition of a third night in 1994 and a fourth night in 1997, peaking at five nights a week with Sundays in mid-1999 and 2000. The number of nights that the program aired began to be reduced due to viewer exhaustion and the rise of equally economic and popular reality television programming. Editions first began to be removed in the spring of 2001, with the main Tuesday slot being eliminated in 2004.
Dateline was the first "multi-night" franchise that "established brand power by 'stripping' editions," a strategy by NBC's entertainment division to place the program in the same time slot every week. It was considered to be a singular program rather than multiple weekly programs, and included many teasers and multiple installment interviews. In its prime, from 1995 to 1999, Dateline provided significant breaking news coverage. The program featured sensationalized news stories and drew in viewers with stories aired in multiple installments. By 1999, any one individual Dateline edition placed in Nielsen's top 10 most-watched television programs among total viewers during most weeks. NBC capitalized on its relationship with CNBC and MSNBC by airing repackaged stories seen on past Dateline broadcasts on the retrospective series Headliners and Legends and Time and Again.
The program first originated from NBC Studio 3K, using the same set that was used at the time for NBC Nightly News. When Today moved to its current facility, NBC Studio 1A, in 1994, Dateline took over Studio 3B and received its own brand-new dedicated set.
Past contributing anchors were Bryant Gumbel, who left NBC in 1997, Maria Shriver, who left NBC in 2004, and Katie Couric, who left NBC in 2006. On June 24, 2005, Ann Curry co-anchored "Dateline" for the first time and became permanent host shortly thereafter.
Dateline began broadcasting in high definition for the first time on July 21, 2008, with an episode titled "Tower Dogs". Dateline previously shared the multi-level Studio 1A with Today. However, in 2013, the program moved back to Studio 3K, where the early-morning news programs Early Today and MSNBC's Morning Joe First Look are also broadcast. Lester Holt replaced Ann Curry as host of Dateline with the start of the 20th season on September 23, 2011, shortly after Curry became permanent co-host of Today.
General Motors vs. NBC
On November 17, 1992, Dateline NBC aired an hour-long investigative report titled "Waiting to Explode," which focused on allegations that General Motors' Rounded-Line Chevrolet C/K-Series pickup trucks exploded upon impact when involved in collisions due to the poor design of the vehicle model's fuel tanks. Datelines footage showed a sample of a low-speed accident in which the fuel tank exploded; the explosion during the crash test would later be discovered to have been staged by an expert witness for hire against GM, Bruce Enz of The Institute for Safety Analysis. Enz used incendiary devices and a poorly fitted gas cap to create the impression of a dangerous vehicle. The program did not disclose the fact that the accident was staged.GM hired investigators from Failure Analysis Associates to study the footage; FaAA investigators discovered while reviewing the video that smoke had actually started to expel from the fuel tank six frames before the actual impact occurred. Acting on a tip from someone involved with the Dateline crash test, investigators with FaAA searched through 22 junkyards in Indiana before finding the charred wreckage of the GM pickups.
It was also later revealed that the Dateline report had been dishonest about the fuel tanks rupturing and the alleged speed at which the collision was conducted. The actual speed was found to be higher than stated, around, and after x-ray examination of the fuel tanks from the C/K pickups used in the televised collision, it was found that they had not ruptured and were intact. GM subsequently filed an anti-defamation/libel lawsuit against NBC after conducting an extensive investigation. On February 8, 1993, after announcing the lawsuit, GM conducted a highly publicized point-by-point rebuttal in the Product Exhibit Hall of the General Motors Building in Detroit that lasted nearly two hours.
The General Motors lawsuit and the subsequent settlement were arguably the most devastating blows for NBC in a series of reputation damaging incidents during the 1990s and early 2000s. Within NBC, Michael Gartner, who resigned under pressure shortly after the incident, was the source for much of the blame. NBC News President Reuven Frank stated Gartner was hired in 1988, despite having no background in television news, in an attempt to satisfy parent company General Electric, by replacing current journalists with cheaper, less experienced reporters and producers.
In addition to the resignation of the news division's president Gartner, three Dateline NBC producers were dismissed as a result of the incident and the findings of the resulting investigation: executive producer Jeff Diamond, senior producer David Rummel, and Robert Read, producer of the report on the pickups. Michele Gillen, the correspondent involved in the segment, was transferred to NBC's Miami owned-and-operated station WTVJ, where she became an anchor of the station's evening newscasts.
Michelle Madigan
In August 2007, Dateline reporter Michelle Madigan attempted to secretly record hackers admitting to crimes at that year's DEF CON in Las Vegas, Nevada. After being outed by DEF CON founder Jeff Moss during an assembly, she was heckled and chased out of the conference by attendees for her use of covert audio and video recording equipment. DEF CON staff tried to get Madigan to obtain a press pass before the outing happened. A DEF CON source at NBC News had tipped off organizers to Madigan's plans.Special series
''To Catch a Predator''
To Catch a Predator was a special series of reports, hosted by Chris Hansen, featuring hidden camera sting operations that bust potential sex offenders who carry out online chats with children with the intent of luring them to meet in person and engage in illegal sexual activity. The stings are conducted in partnership with Perverted-Justice, and begin for each potential offender with recordings of online chats of him with a "decoy" employed with the organization, posing as minor, generally between the ages of 12 and 15. If the potential offender and the decoy make an appointment, this is at the pretended home of the pretended minor, which is in fact a house prepared for the television show, with police hiding outside for the subsequent arrest of the offender outside the house.During the filming of each episode, men who attempt to meet the minor in person are filmed as they enter inside the "sting" house. Shortly after the target is inside, often after talking to the Perverted-Justice decoy, Hansen would confront each suspect and ask them about their online conversations with the decoy. After the confrontation, the men are taken into custody by local police. Some men were arrested even if they never entered the home in question. The segment was cancelled in early 2008 in part due to criticism of the show as well as legal issues, including the Suicide of Bill Conradt and subsequent prosecution of NBC by Conradt's sister, Patricia Conradt.