20/20 is an
American
"television
newsmagazine", (similar in depth to a "print newsmagazine"), broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978.
Created by
ABC News executive
Roone Arledge , the show was designed
similarly to
CBS's
60
Minutes but focuses more on human interest stories than
international and political subjects. The program's name derives
from the "20/20" measurement of
visual
acuity.
History
The show's anchors on the premiere telecast were
Harold Hayes, the renowned editor of
Esquire magazine who
also served as senior producer, and famed
Time art critic
Robert Hughes. The debut received
largely harsh reviews;
The New
York Times described it as "dizzingly absurd" and the
Washington Post denounced
it as "the trashiest stab at candycane journalism yet." In his
autobiography
Roone: A Memoir, Arledge recalled that
probably the most embarrassing part of that initial program was the
Claymation segments featuring caricatures
representing then-President
Jimmy
Carter (singing "
Georgia on My
Mind") and
Walter Cronkite
(closing the show intoning, "That's the way it was"). As a result
of the scathing reviews, serious and drastic changes were made
immediately: Hayes and Hughes were fired (as was original executive
producer
Bob Shanks), and a then
semi-retired
Hugh Downs was recruited to
take on the role of sole host on the following week's
program.
Also in the premiere telecast of
20/20, the opening
sequence consisted of a pair of eyeglasses, whose lenses showed
colored bars, which are often seen in the
SMPTE test pattern (always used when TV
stations were off the air). The eyeglasses were keyed over a yellow
background, and rotated to its rear position to reveal the 20/20
studio. The opening sequence looked a lot like it came from the
late 1960s and early 1970s.
Under Downs as host,
20/20 evolved into a more standard
yet unique newsmagazine and received kinder reviews. The program
originally was seen as a summer replacement series, after which
during the 1978–1979 season it was presented on a once-a-month
basis before acquiring a regular Thursday 10:00 p.m. slot beginning
May 31, 1979. Ratings were generally very good during the
summertime during its eight years on Thursday nights despite
competition from
Knots
Landing on CBS and
Hill
Street Blues on NBC.
Barbara Walters joined the cast in
1979 as something less than a co-anchor and soon became a regular
special contributor in the fall of 1981. In 1984 she became Hugh
Downs' equal, thus reuniting a duo which had already anchored
together on
NBC's
Today from 1964 to 1971. The team
would remain together on-air for the next 15 years.
In the autumn of 1987,
20/20 was moved to Fridays at 10:00
p.m., where by the 1991–1992 season it ranked 21st in the annual
ratings as a result. It aired in that same slot until the fall of
2001, when the series was briefly replaced only to return again
four months later. It has basically retained that slot ever since.
While the series briefly moved to the 8:00 p.m. timeslot on October
12, 2007, it reverted to its usual time two weeks later.
In 1997, a second weekly edition of "20/20" was launched. For a
time from 1998–2000,
ABC News combined
20/20 and
Primetime
Live to compete with
Dateline
NBC. The editions were called
20/20 Monday,
20/20 Wednesday,
20/20 Thursday,
20/20
Friday,
20/20 Sunday, and finally
20/20
Downtown. In 2000 ABC News returned the news magazines to the
original
20/20, reinstating
Primetime Thursday,
and spinning off
20/20 Downtown as simply
Downtown. By early 2002, the show was airing again in only
its original Friday timeslot.
Downs retired in 1999 and Walters became the solo news anchor until
2002 when
John Miller was
hired to be a permanent co-host of the series. But he never got
very comfortable in the anchor chair and a year later he jumped at
the chance to rejoin law enforcement. For a few months in early
2003 Barbara Walters anchored solo again. However, in May 2003,
John Stossel, the man behind the
controversial, though popular, "Give Me a Break" segments, was
named co-anchor of
20/20. As one of the first veteran
anchors, Barbara Walters chose to go into semi-retirement as a
broadcast journalist in 2004. However, she remained as a frequent
contributor to the show. ABC News reporter
Elizabeth Vargas was promoted to the
co-anchor spot. On September 2009, before the start of its new
season, John Stossel announced he would leave the program after
twenty-eight years to pursue a new weekly show on the
Fox Business Channel. Barbara Walters
and
Diane Sawyer also contribute
reports.
Spin offs
20/20 Downtown, later "Downtown" and "Primetime Monday"
Unlike most other newsmagazine,
Downtown was never carried
by any big name anchor. An ensemble team of anchors fronted the
broadcast, which was aimed at attracting younger viewers. The
anchor/reporting duties were filled by the team of Elizabeth
Vargas, Cynthia McFadden, Chris Cuomo, Jay Schadler and John
Quiñones. It was canceled in 2002. In 2003, the program returned
for one season as
Primetime Monday with the same anchors
and format.
One hour specials
20/20 has done unique hour-long reports that include “My
Secret Self: A Story of
Transgender
Children”, “Waiting on the World to Change”—a year in the lives of
children in one of the poorest cities in America—“Scared Stiff:
Worried in America”, “Caught on Tape”—on how the proliferation of
cameras in our society has impacted our lives—“Seeing and
Believing: The Power of Faith”, “Privilege in America: Who’s
Shutting You Out”, “Sweet Revenge”, a report on the differences
between female and male brains, and "When Is Young Too Young?"
which reports on teenagers and kids that have adult traits, like an
11 year old girl that is a race car driver or a 10 year old boy
that is a matador and includes the conversations with the mother of
pilot trainee Jessica Dubroff who at the age of seven died when the
plane she was flying crashed not long after take off.
Drama High: The Making of a High School Musical, a two
hour special edition of
20/20, aired on December 15, 2008.
With over three hundred hours of footage,
Drama High
depicts the minefields that students must navigate both on stage
and off when trying out for a high school musical. Who will make
the cast? Who has a future in performing and who doesn't? Rivalries
heat up between peers while egos hit rock bottom and all time
highs. The program documents the journey of students at Westfield
High, a predominantly white school in Virginia who is staging
The Wiz—the black musical version
of
The Wizard of Oz. Over 100 kids audition but only four
will win the chance to star the performance. This program was a
departure from
20/20 s usual format in that it features no
correspondent or narration, instead the story is told through the
students' intimate video diaries.
In August 2006 a two hour special entitled
Last Days on Earth aired. It
discussed seven ways in which life on Earth could end, and has
since aired on the History Channel.
Music theme
The distinctive theme music to
20/20 was written by
Robert Arnold Israel and based
upon ABC's
World News
Tonight theme written by
Lillian Scheinert. The original theme was
revamped around 1993, and was subsequently replaced in 1999 along
with the
20/20 logo and the anchors' desk. Finally the
orchestral
20/20 theme was updated in 2001, along with a
few modifications in 2003 and 2005.
Past anchors
Current and past correspondents
International broadcasts
References
-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/business/media/11fox.html
- http://abcnews.go.com/2020/dramahigh
External links
(Hamilton,
Ontario
)
an Irish version of 20/20 launched on
TV3 in 1998. The show used a mix
of reports from Ireland and reports from the American edition until
it was canceled in 2002.
TVNZ's TV2 airs an hour-long local
version, featuring both locally and internationally produced
stories.
on TVB (Airs Monday and Friday
on TVB Pearl )
on Metro TV airs at 1:05pm
on Fridays.
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