Dateline NBC

I am more than just a big fan of the newsmagazine Dateline NBC program, due to well-justified reasons that might sound strange to newbies to TV shows that have a combination of police procedural, crime mystery, and drama procedural genres. I have always been addicted to awesome shows such as CSI with Laurence Fishburn and Raymond Langston, The Mentalist with Simon Baker and Robin Tunney, and Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. My fanaticism for these shows simply made Dateline NBC a heavenly gift that completes my desires for more in these genres.

Please do not be confused, Dateline is a serious real-life investigative journalism program with a focus on the most serious forms of true crime. It has a cast of well-renowned journalists and experts (that you may also call “crime puzzles and mysteries solvers”), they are professionals who can fill an entire house with awards and recognition trophies granted to them by the most elite and respected TV, journalism, philanthropy, education, and entertainment clubs and organizations.

The program Dateline NBC has been running for three continuous decades, since March 31st, 1992 to be exact. Surveys conducted in the first quarter of 2022 crowned it as the king of all newsmagazine and true crime franchises. It clocked nearly 80 million regular TV viewers in the first quarter of 2022, not to mention 27 billion (that's with a B) view minutes online during the same period.

It literally deserves a genre of its own, it has an immense focus on mystery and in-depth investigative journalism. Historically it covered the most societally enticing and complex stories and serious issues of the day, from mystery crime to in-depth investigations and breaking-news events. However, it has gradually evolved to mainly tackle cases involving mystery crimes, murder, cold cases, and missing people. Each episode or series features only one single story or closely related interconnected stories. It has been awarded multiple Emmys in the news and documentary category. 

I have heard some experts say that Dateline's success can be attributed to their clever use of psychologically mind-numbing cliffhangers that are used prior to commercial breaks and such. However, I like most viewers disagree.

Naturally, the production company behind Dateline is NBC Universal which is owned by Comcast Corporation, a multinational telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia. NBC Universal is one hell of a masterful corporation in the TV universe, hence it is hard to expect any less from it, it is also notorious for scrapping low crappy programming from its massive network of a global TV and online streaming businesses. 

“Behind every successful TV program, there is a team of admirable excelling producers and cast”. The current team of producers and cast at Dateline NBC are just that. Both of Dateline’s executive producers David Corvo and Liz Cole have the “News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Newsmagazine

The program's host Lester Holt was NBC's choice to moderate the Democratic presidential candidates' debate in 2016, and the dramatic “out of this world” presidential debate between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump in the same year.

Andrea Canning a mother of six and a current senior Dateline correspondent once interrogated "Two and a Half Men” lead star Charlie Sheen for ABC’s 20/20 program in 2011. You probably heard of that interview that turned into a viral video, a year later Dateline called and she was hired. Of course, the Sheen interview represented a mere minor factor for the promotion, for she indeed was one hell of a well-respected journalist even in the halls of the Whitehouse.

Josh Mankiewicz who has been reporting for Dateline NBC since 1995, is best known for his Dateline report on the Atkins Diet. Why? Well, He lost more than 21 kilograms on the Atkins Diet. In a nutshell, he takes the news reporting quality issues as seriously as he takes his weight issues.

Keith Morrison has been a correspondent for Dateline NBC since 1995 and is the oldest cast member. He is iconic, his voice is legendary, and is well known for his very dramatic delivery of the most disturbing real-life murder mysteries.

Dennis Murphy is the fifth current cast member of the Dateline notorious “crime and mystery investigations crew”, he loves hunting criminals and is the winner of four national Emmys for excellence in news reporting.

Some like to compare Dateline NBC to CBS’s program 60 minutes and ABC’s 20/20, however, Dateline has defeated both (which by the way are also pretty good programs) with its secret recipe or rather magic of emotionally and psychologically hooking the audiences to the featured persons in their episodes and series. They are simply pretty successful at making people become attached to the featured persons and/or news stories.

Some of the famous Dateline murder mysteries and other true-crime series include: To Catch a Predator, Wild Wild Web, To Catch a Con Man, The Real Blacklist, The Widower, and The Last Day.

Dateline NBC is suspenseful, it features murder, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, and complex love circles with unhappy and disturbing endings. Their research for each case is unparalleled and truly in-depth. The coverage is informative and filled with emotions and drama, yet it is for both the strong and weak-hearted because it has a unique sense of gentleness and respect.

Sophie ☕️🍰 - may 26, 2022