20/20 Season 43 – Latest news details and more updates!

20/20 is a primetime television newsmagazine series on ABC. The series has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. The series has been created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, and features compelling news reports and stories. 20/20 derives its name from the “20/20” measurement of visual acuity. The program was developed similar to CBS’s 60 Minutes, featuring in-depth story coverages, but is different from it in the sense that 20/20 focuses more on human interest stories rather than international and political issues.

42 seasons into the running, 20/20 has been one of the most esteemed programs in broadcast journalism. Currently, the program is hosted by award-winning journalists David Muir and Amy Robach. The program has been broadcast on Friday nights every week at 9pm ET,  ever since it moved to that timeslot from Thursday evenings in September 1987.

Former hosts of 20/20 include Harold Hayes (1978), Robert Hughes (1978), Hugh Downs (1978-1999), Barbara Walters (1979-2004, 2013-2014), Diane Sawyer (1998-2000), Charles Gibson (1998-2000), Sam Donaldson (1998-2000), Connie Chung (1998-2000), Jack Ford (2000-2001), John Miller (2002-2003), John Stossel (2003-2009), Elizabeth Vargas (2004-2018), and Chris Cuomo (2009-2013).

Since 2018, 20/20 has shifted to a two-hour format, focusing more on true crime stories and celebrity scandals, and shifting away from its traditional investigative journalism and newsmagazine format. Season 43 of 20/20 premiered on September 25, 2020, as an event-special episode, called “The Secret in the Suitcase”.

TONIGHT: All-new jailhouse interview. The stunning true-crime 20/20 Event Special ‘The Secret in the Suitcase’ premieres tonight at 9|8c on @ABC with @ARobach. #ABC2020 pic.twitter.com/nzgaWc0d7B

— 20/20 (@ABC2020) September 25, 2020

20/20 Season 42 Ratings

The 42nd season of 20/20 premiered on September 27, 2019. This season had an average demo rating of 0.55 in the 18-49 demographic, and an average viewership of 3.34 million viewers across the season. The numbers have seen a dip of 6% and 5%, respectively, from the previous season. However, these drops in the numbers of season 42 of 20/20 were the second lowest in comparison to those of all other unscripted shows on ABC, only behind The Bachelor.

Season 42 of 20/20 stood at number 11 in terms of demo ratings and at number 10 in terms of average viewership, on ABC’s list of unscripted shows for 2019-20. 

Even though the newsmagazine series has seen a decline in ratings over the years, the long-running program has not faded in popularity. ABC renewed the program for the 43rd season in May 2020, for its 2020-21 season, which has already started airing.