DATELINE: THE REAL BLACKLIST Leads Into NBC's Hit Drama THE BLACKLIST Tonight

Designed as a themed two-hour programming block that joins the forces of both the news and entertainment divisions, NBC will air "Dateline: The Real Blacklist" at 8 p.m. Thursdays, beginning tonight, March 12, leading into "The Blacklist" at 9 p.m.

"The Slap," which currently airs at 8 p.m., will shift to the 10 p.m. timeslot.

"Dateline: The Real Blacklist" will be hosted by NBC News' Richard Engel and focus on conspiracy-themed investigations and crimes that involve larger-than-life perpetrators and circumstances.

For THE MARCH 12 "Dateline: The Real Blacklist," Engel has more on the murder case that is currently the subject of a new official inquiry in Great Britain. He investigates the 2006 poisoning death of former Russian spy and businessman, Alexander Litvinenko. Engel traveled to London, Moscow and ROME to take a deeper look into Litvinenko's death, the murder investigation and the players involved in the case. He also spoke with the former Russian security agent, who's now a chief suspect in the case.

In future telecasts of "Dateline: The Real Blacklist," the show will report on John McAfee, the former antivirus pioneer who has remained a PERSON OF INTEREST to police in their investigation into the murder of Gregory Faull in Belize. "Dateline: The Real Blacklist" will also go on the trail of the Pink Panther Gang, the famous jewel heists who have fooled some of the world's most experienced detectives.

In "live plus three day" ratings results for "The Blacklist" since moving to Thursdays, the drama has improved the time period for NBC by +175% in adult 18-49 rating versus prior regularly scheduled entertainment programming, with a 3.3 rating versus a prior 1.2 average, according to Nielsen Media Research. In total viewers, the improvement has been 9.0 million persons (13.3 million vs. 4.2 million). The most recent telecast on Feb. 26 jumped +12% versus the prior in adult 18-49 rating (1.9 vs. 1.7) to the show's top results since its Feb. 5 Thursday debut.

So far this season, "Dateline NBC" has averaged a 1.5 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 7.0 million viewers overall with its Friday edition and a 1.2/3 in 18-49 and 5.7 million viewers overall with its Sunday telecast. That Friday total-viewer average of 7.0 million is "Dateline's" highest at this point in the season in five years, since the show was delivering 7.7 million on Fridays during the 2009-10 season.

Through its first three weeks, "The Slap" has averaged a 1.0 rating, 3 share in adults 18-49 and 4.8 million viewers overall according to "most current" ratings from Nielsen Media Research, and has been a solid upscale attraction, delivering a 123 index of adults 18-49 living in homes with $100K+ incomes ("most current" including L+3, with 100 representing an average concentration of those homes).

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