There’s been a good deal of talk recently about the Gabby Petito case and how people of color don’t get anywhere near as much attention when they go missing. That wasn’t an option for a long time and we have forged on. It’s much easier to calm them down when you’re in the same room. But also, people are nervous, which they frequently are when they’re appearing on Dateline. You read them better, you can see their affect of body language. For me, there is no substitute for sitting across from the person. Mankiewicz: It’s definitely possible to do a good interview remotely. You can be thousands of miles away, but it’s like the person is sitting four or five feet away from you. There’s an intimacy in those remote interviews, which I found surprising at the beginning. There’s a crackerjack staff of producers who are out around the country. The vast majority of our interviews are done remotely, but with first-quality camera crews at either end, and the best technology for mixing these two things together. We have figured out a way to do it in a way that I think is quite satisfactory for the program and has surprised ourselves a bit along the way. Morrison: It certainly has influenced everybody’s method of working. How has the pandemic influenced your production process? It was endless, and you were constantly cranking out several stories at a time on a variety of different topics. Back in the ’90s, I had never been on airplanes as much as I was. Back when we were five nights a week until now, it has always been this well-oiled machine and everybody pulls together in the same direction, and that makes getting all that programming on the air so much easier. Mankiewicz: The reason we’re still here for 30 seasons is because of the people you don’t see on Dateline. Morrison covering the Gianni Versace murder case in 1997. That is what has really made this program. That’s how I think the program developed: its ability to move fast, and get things done accurately and well, and developed a staff of producers, senior producers, line producers and editors who are second to none in the industry. It was a push all the time you’re on it in a hurry to get something done and get it on the air. Morrison: I look back on it very fondly, and it was extraordinarily well-managed. What was dealing with all of those editions of Dateline like? Did it seem overwhelming at the time, or is it a time you both look back on fondly? I’ve just been following along.ĭateline used to air multiple nights a week, peaking at five nights a week in 1999. Morrison: Well, you’ve been good at it, Josh. Mankiewicz: One reason they’re everywhere is that we’ve been so good at it, and we’ve had a lot of people following along. When we started, it was kind of an unusual thing to do, an hour on a crime story. Morrison: I continue to be amazed by the appetite for true crime stories. I think we’ve done a good job of adapting and we’ve matched what the audience is expecting and hoping from us. As we go forward, now we’re evolving into podcasts and streaming and other ways in which people are getting things delivered to them. We weren’t doing a lot of crime at the beginning, but now we cover true crime at a time when people seem interested in that. When we started, we were doing four, five, six different stories in an hour. Mankiewicz: We’ve done a good job of changing and adapting. From your respective standpoints, how show has evolved over time, and why it has remained so popular over the years? TVNewser: Dateline launched in 1992, and you two have been correspondents for nearly the entire time. This interview has been condensed and edited. Morrison even provided us with a Mike Wallace anecdote. They told us how Dateline has evolved over the years, starting in the ’90s when the show aired up to five nights a week, as well as how the pandemic influenced their journalism and how much longer they each plan to remain on the show. To mark the 30th anniversary of Dateline, we spoke with Josh Mankiewicz and Keith Morrison, two of newsmagazine’s longest-tenured correspondents (they joined in 1995-the year after Dateline expanded to a third night, Fridays). They watch the show consistently, listen to its podcasts, flock to CrimeCon to get a photo with the correspondents and engage with the show in various other ways. ET-has also attracted millions of everyday Americans each week since 1992. But NBC’s longest-running primetime program-which embarks on its 30th season this coming Friday at 9 p.m. If you follow Dateline and its social media accounts closely, you’re acutely aware the newsmagazine boasts a roster of celebrity fans, including Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Bill Hader, Kristen Bell and many more.
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