48 HOURS Kicks Off 30th Season with New Look and Takes Viewers Inside

48 HOURS will kick off its 30th anniversary year on Saturday, Sept. 30 with a new look and a new emphasis on taking viewers inside stories that matter and THE JOURNEY for the truth, it was announced today by senior executive producer Susan Zirinsky. Saturday night's #1 non-sports broadcast will launch with back-to-back editions starting at 9:00 PM with a 48 HOURS special, "O.J. Simpson: Endgame," followed at 10:00 PM with "The Widow on Solway Road."

"With every case, we're taking the viewer inside the investigation and along the path of discovery taken by our teams," says Zirinsky. "The viewer is watching and becomes immersed as the correspondent unravels these complex cases. Showing the correspondent's journey was critical at the launch of 48 HOURS 30 years ago, and is even more important today."

48 HOURS will feature a new opening sequence that includes a nod to the broadcast's 30th anniversary, along with new graphics. 48 HOURS also will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series launch with special multi-platform elements that highlight key moments of the broadcast's rich journalistic history.

"This is the best of experiential journalism," says Zirinsky. "We have the top storytellers in the field, and viewers will sense that they're standing alongside Erin Moriarty, Peter Van Sant, Maureen Maher, Richard Schlesinger, Tracy Smith and other CBS News correspondents as they uncover information and make sense of these highly emotional, often perplexing cases.

"We're uncovering stories from Silicon Valley, to the nation's heartland, and to Russia," adds Zirinsky. "What they all have in common is they involve real people, real families and real drama, and they speak to larger issues about society and our world."

48 HOURS began as the documentary 48 HOURS ON CRACK STREET in 1986, which featured the reporting of 10 CBS News correspondents and 15 crews over a period of one weekend to chronicle the impact of the sale, use and effect of drugs. It became a regular series on January 19, 1988 with the show built around a team of correspondents covering one subject for 48 consecutive hours. Over time it evolved into the premier broadcast for law, crime and justice stories. 48 HOURS remains the third longest-running primetime series on network television. 48 HOURS has also been the #1 non-sports program on Saturday nights for the past 11 seasons.

Reporting by 48 HOURS journalists has been credited with uncovering new information that has led to high-profile cases being overturned and wrongfully convicted people released from prison. To name a few, 48 HOURS has impacted the cases of Ryan Ferguson, who spent 10 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit; the West Memphis Three, three men convicted for killing a young boy; and Martin Tankleff, who as a teenager was convicted of killing his parents and today walks free, now a lawyer. 48 HOURS has earned numerous awards, including three Peabodys, 20 Emmys®, four RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

The 48 HOURS team is often called on to produce breaking news specials for CBS, and has done so after such events as the shooting of five police officers in Dallas, the terrorist attacks in Paris, the deaths of Mary Tyler Moore and Muhammad Ali and most recently the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.

"Our team spends years reporting on some of these cases," says Zirinsky. "We're dedicated to bringing the best original reporting on crime and justice cases that matter."

Follow 48 HOURS on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Listen to podcasts at Radio.com Use the hashtag #48at30.

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