# Dateline (1992)

> A long-running NBC newsmagazine that focuses on true crime stories of homicide and missing persons.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/69

## Facts

- Seasons: 35
- Episodes: 1241
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: crime, documentary
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Ann Curry, Stone Phillips, Jane Pauley, Lester Holt, Farrah Fawcett, Phoebe Eaton, Josh Mankiewicz, Andrea Canning
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103396/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: sober, suspenseful, methodical, somber

## What critics say

Critics and viewers generally value its investigative reporting and true crime storytelling, while noting uneven episode quality.

## Synopsis

Dateline (1992-present) is an American newsmagazine series created for NBC, a long-running true crime documentary series. Hosted by a rotating roster of NBC News correspondents including Lester Holt, Keith Morrison, Andrea Canning and Josh Mankiewicz, each weekly episode follows a homicide or mysterious disappearance from investigation to courtroom, built from interviews with detectives, families, prosecutors and defendants. The engine is reporting itself: correspondents chase records, reopen cold files and confront contradictory accounts until a case resolves or stalls. Across twenty-nine seasons and more than a thousand episodes, the show runs as an anthology of standalone case segments rather than one continuing story, with the occasional edition turning to other subjects. Tone is sober and methodical, with suspense built through interview pacing and rising unease rather than gore. Its look is the familiar newsmagazine mix of sit-down interviews, archival footage and location reporting. Fans of 48 Hours, 20/20 and The Jinx will find resonance in its patient, investigative approach to real crime. Set in present-day America, it is a broadcast television staple of the true crime genre.

## Shows like Dateline

- [The FBI Files (1998)](https://ember.film/tv/623)
- [Amy Bradley Is Missing (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/199835)
- [Cold Case Files (1999)](https://ember.film/tv/11436)
- [America's Most Wanted (1988)](https://ember.film/tv/1699)
- [Cold Justice (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/52620)
- [On the Case with Paula Zahn (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/23205)
- [Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/181591)
- [American Murder: Laci Peterson (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/175260)
- [The First 48 (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/4885)
- [Homicide Hunter: Lt Joe Kenda (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/55336)

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