20/20 | |
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Genre | News magazine |
Created by | Roone Arledge |
Presented by |
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Theme music composer |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 46 |
No. of episodes | 500+ |
Production | |
Executive producer | David Sloan (2005–present) |
Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time |
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Production company | ABC News Productions |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | June 6, 1978 present | –
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20/20 (stylized as 2020) is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge,[1] the program was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes in that it features in-depth story packages, although it focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity.
The two-hour-long program has been a staple on Friday evenings (currently airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone) for much of the time since it moved to that timeslot from Thursdays in September 1987, though special editions of the program occasionally air on other nights. For most of its history, it was led into by ABC's two-hour TGIF block of sitcoms.
Since 2019, it has shifted to a two-hour format highlighting true crime stories and celebrity scandals rather than the traditional investigative journalism associated with newsmagazines, following the same programming direction as CBS's 48 Hours and same-night competitor Dateline NBC. Special edition episodes, however, cover a wide range of topics.