Series Description

The Dateline NBC TV show is a 60 minute investigative series in a similar tradition as that of ABC's "20/20" and CBS's "60 Minutes". Storylines include criminal activities (often sexual in nature), political corruption, scams, corporate abuses, and public interest stories. Much of the attraction of this type of "News Magazine" is the questioning of the "bad guys" without notice and seeing their reaction to being put "on the spot". The series began in 1992 and continues to air to this day (2009).

Dateline NBC Cast

Anchors (Regular):

Stone Phillips (1992-2007)
Jane Pauley (1992-2003)
Maria Shriver (1992-2003)
Bryant Gumbel (1992-1997)
Tim Russert (1992-2008)
Faith Daniels (1992-1995)
Deborah Roberts (1992-1995)
Mike Schiender (1992-1995)
Garrick Utley (1992-1993)
David Bloom (1993-2003)
Elizabeth Vargas (1993-1996)
Katie Couric (1994-2006)
Tom Brokaw (1994-2004)
Jack Ford (1995-1999)
Jodi Applegate (1996-2000)
Ann Curry (2005-)
Chris Hansen (2007-)
Hoda Kotb (2008-)
Matt Lauer(2008-)

Anchors (Contributing):

Natalie Morales (2006-)
Meredith Vieira (2006-)
Matt Lauer (1997-)
Al Roker (2005-)
Brian Williams (2004-)

Correspondents:

Victoria Corderi
Chris Hansen
Sara James
Dennis Murphy
Michelle Madigan
Josh Mankiewicz (1995-)
Keith Morrison (1995-)
Rob Stafford (1996-2006)
Hoda Kotb (1998-)
Lester Holt (2006-)
Amy Robach (2007-)

Dateline NBC Trivia:

Dateline NBC was the 20th attempt to produce a successful new magazine series! Some of the "failures" included "Weekend", "Prime Time Sunday", "NBC Magazine", and "Monitor" (retitled, "First Camera") which actually tried to go head-to-head with CBS's "60 Minutes" in its time slot!

Dateline NBC started production by sharing Studio 3K with the NBC Nightly News. It eventually took over Studio 3B when it was abandoned by "The Today Show" by moving to the sidewalk set it currently (2008) uses. Dateline NBC also got a new set when it moved to Studio 3B.

While Dateline NBC did cover "hard" news stories like crime and corruption, it concentrates a bit more on human interest stories than "20/20" or "60 Minutes". It does, however, air under other titles including "Dateline Wednesday", "Dateline Friday", and "Dateline Saturday" and those versions covered mostly hard-hitting stories.

Dateline NBC didn't have much competition in its time slot during its first season. CBS was airing the second half of their "CBS Tuesday Movie" and ABC was showing their series, "Going to Extremes" which only survived one-half of the season. In the fall of 1993, however, ABC premiered it new hit series, "NYPD Blue" in that slot.

Dateline Timeline is a segment designed to ensure that viewers will return after a commercial break. A popular person, product, and song are given and then the audience is asked to identify the year that they all had in common. The correct answer was revealed after the break!

Dateline NBC like the other news magazine series has garned much criticism over the years for its aggressive form of journalism. Its "To Catch a Predator" series is one example where an adult poses as a juvenile who finds a "predator" on the internet who agrees to meet the "juvenile" for a sexual encounter. Critics, while not excusing the "predator's" actions, say that entrapment is not an acceptable way of getting a story and that Dateline NBC was making news rather than reporting news. Two Dateline NBC employees posed as potential terrorists by attempting to pay for a helicopter rental with cash and out-of-state IDs while smuggling box cutters onto the aircraft. The purpose was to show that there were insufficient security measures in place for aviation in the U.S. The reporters were caught but later released. Critics felt that the F.B.I. and other police officials time had been wasted. The worst case, however, was a segment where Dateline NBC did a segment about how General Motors trucks' fuel tanks were exploding during accidents due to a poor design that GM wouldn't fix. When it was exposed that the scenes showing tanks exploding were faked, GM sued, Jane Pauley read an apology on the air, NBC quickly settled the suit, and many of Dateline NBC's Producers and other employees were soon unemployed!