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''48 Hours'' is an American documentary/ news magazine television show broadcast on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
. The show has been broadcast on the network since January 19, 1988 in the United States. The show airs Saturdays at 10:00 p.m.
Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...
and
Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
, as part of the network's placeholder '' Crimetime Saturday'' block; as such, it is currently one of only two remaining first-run prime time shows (excluding sports) airing Saturday nights on the major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
's ''Sabadazo''). The show sometimes airs two-hour editions or two consecutive one-hour editions, depending on the subject involved or to serve as counterprogramming against other networks. Judy Tygard was named senior executive producer in January 2019, replacing
Susan Zirinsky Susan Zirinsky (born March 3, 1952) is an American journalist and television news producer. She served as the President of CBS News from January 2019 until April 2021, when she was succeeded by Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon. She previously s ...
, who served as executive producer since 1996 until her early 2019 appointment as president of CBS News. Reruns of ''48 Hours'' are regularly broadcast on
Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...
, the Oprah Winfrey Network and TLC as part of their daytime and/or weekend schedules, with varying titles based on the edition's subject matter (such as ''48 Hours Hard Evidence'', ''48 Hours Investigates'' (a title that has also been used for the CBS broadcasts), ''48 Hours on OWN'' or ''48 Hours on ID'').


Format


Original format

The program was created by former
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 ...
president Howard Stringer. It drew its title, inspiration and original format from the CBS News documentary ''48 Hours on Crack Street,'' which aired in September 1986, centering on the drug crisis plaguing a number of U.S. neighborhoods. Like the original documentary, the program originally focused on showing events occurring within a 48-hour time span; this format was eventually phased out by the early 1990s. One of the contributors to that program, CBS News correspondent
Harold Dow Harold Dow (September 28, 1947 – August 21, 2010) was an American television news correspondent, journalist, and investigative journalism with CBS News. Early life and career Dow was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. He attended the Univers ...
, had been a member of the ''48 Hours'' on-air staff since its premiere.
Dan Rather Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurr ...
, at the time also serving as anchor of the ''
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...
'', was the primary host of ''48 Hours'' for its first 14 years on the air. In 1997, CBS aired a special episode of 48 Hours titled ''Property of 48 Hours'', which focused on some of the stories over the program's first nine years. After low ratings on Saturday nights, the show was moved to Wednesday nights, replacing the comedies ''
Lenny Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''L ...
'' and '' Doctor Doctor'', and it was soon to be moved to the 10pm slot.


Current format

In the mid-2000s, the program transitioned into its current format, originally known as ''48 Hours Mystery'' although it has since reverted to its original title, which mainly presents "
true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...
" documentaries. On nights except Sundays where live primetime
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
coverage from CBS News occurs, the timeslot of that coverage is branded as a special edition of ''48 Hours'', but is not part of the Saturday program's yearly ratings average and has little to no involvement from dedicated members of the ''48 Hours'' production and on-air staff. In 2009, the program featured interviews with Jodi Arias concerning the murder of her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. These recordings were later used in 2011 as evidence in court to convict Arias, the first time the program's interviews had ever been used in a
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
trial. On September 17, 2011, ''48 Hours'' began broadcasting in high definition, making it the last prime time newsmagazine on U.S. broadcast television to convert to the format.


Variations


''48 Hours Investigates/Mystery''

The program was revamped in 2002, when
Lesley Stahl Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...
took over hosting duties from Dan Rather, and its title was changed to ''48 Hours Investigates''. The title was changed again to ''48 Hours Mystery'' in 2004, and with its single-topic format, it does not use a single host but is narrated by the reporter assigned to the story. The current format of the documentary primarily deals with real-life mysteries and crime stories, again with just one mystery per episode (such as the murder of Brian Stidham), owing to its heritage structure of featuring a single topic per episode. The program is not confined to reporting mysteries; CBS often uses the ''48 Hours'' title or timeslot to present mainly special reports on
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
events only scheduled on the same day, such as a 2006 report on the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, coverage of the
Virginia Tech massacre The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an ...
in April 2007 or coverage of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and th ...
in December 2012. However, the relationship between these special programs and the rest of the program's editions are essentially limited to the program's title.


''48 Hours: Live To Tell''

''48 Hours: Live To Tell'' uses a different format from the earlier versions of the program. This format does not utilize a narrator; instead the stories are recounted entirely by the victims and those who know the victims of crimes; some episodes also focus on other life-threatening situations, but are recounted in the same manner.


''48 Hours: NCIS'' & ''NCIS: The Cases They Can't Forget''

''48 Hours: NCIS'', also known as ''NCIS: The Cases They Can't Forget'', utilizes a similar format to the standard, although it instead features real life cases from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Rocky Carroll Roscoe "Rocky" Carroll (born July 8, 1963) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles as Joey Emerson on the Fox comedy-drama '' Roc'' (1991–94), as Dr. Keith Wilkes on the CBS medical drama ''Chicago Hope'', and as NCIS Dire ...
, who plays NCIS director
Leon Vance Leon Robert Vance Jr. (August 11, 1916 – July 26, 1944) was a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Early life and family Leon Robert Vance Jr. was born and raised in Enid, Oklahoma. Va ...
on '' NCIS'', narrates these episodes, which aired on April 25, May 12, and May 23-June 13, 2017, all of which except for May 12 being on Tuesdays. As of 2018, it is in its second season. On May 17, 2019, it was announced that the third season will premiere on May 29, 2019. For the third season, it was retitled ''NCIS: The Cases They Can't Forget''.


Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings


International release

The series has also aired on various channels in Canada, most recently Global. Since June 2015, it has also aired in Australia on Network 10 (a sister network of CBS since 2017).


Awards and nominations

The program has received over 20
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
, two
Peabody Awards The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
(one in 2000 for the report "Heroes Under Fire" and one for the reports "Abortion Battle" and "On Runaway Street"), and an Ohio State Award.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:48 Hours (Tv program) 1988 American television series debuts 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows CBS News CBS original programming English-language television shows Peabody Award-winning television programs Super Bowl lead-out shows Television series by CBS Studios True crime television series