‘Dateline’ stars dissect the show’s success
NEW YORK – Laughter is not often associated with “Dateline NBC.”
And yet, there were laughs coming from a reunion of sorts at the NBC offices in 30 Rockefeller Plaza amongst the “Dateline” anchors – Lester Holt, Keith Morrison, Andrea Canning and Dennis Murphy – who hadn’t seen one another since before the pandemic began.
The foursome reunited in person Monday to celebrate the newsmagazine show, which returns Friday (9 p.m. EDT/PDT) for its milestone 30th season, the longest running primetime program on NBC since its debut in 1992.
“There was never a newsroom-type atmosphere where everyone is sitting at our desk next to each other,” says “Dateline” host Holt, joking with Canning and Murphy about recent work trips to Florida as they all reconnect.
But they quickly get serious when addressing the people at the heart of the true crime stories they’ve covered, from missing and murdered Indigenous women to a wrongfully convicted man finally released from prison.
Canning covered the Indigenous women story and helped shine a light on a community historically ignored, as stories like the disappearance of Gabby Petito gain national focus. “That was a murder-mystery, but we made it into a much bigger issue. … It was a way to get it on the air and to tackle something that is really important in this country, but still keeping it in the ‘Dateline’ fashion,” she says.
The show has evolved over the years, moving from 10-minute nightly news spots to two-hour-long appointment viewing.
The group lists the recent case involving the Murdaugh family and an attempted murder in South Carolina as a story primed for “Dateline,” but Murphy says he prefers “to get a story that nobody has really heard of.” There isn’t just one type of “Dateline”-esque case, they agree.
“We’re not looking for the bloodiest story or the scariest story,” says correspondent Josh Mankiewicz by phone from Los Angeles Tuesday.
Murphy jumps in to note that though true crime is often the crux of most episodes, the show goes beyond that, and its focus on relationships sets “Dateline” apart from competitors.
“I’m not interested in the forensics and the hair and fiber. I’m interested in the billiard balls that all break when this thing happens, and it sets in motion all of the characters that we’re going to meet,” Murphy says.
“It’s not just about the crime,” says Morrison, sitting back in his signature jeans and a pair of Converse sneakers, more soft-spoken in person than his “Dateline” storytelling voice would suggest. “In fact, it’s not really about the crime at all. It’s about what happened in the relationships that caused the crime to occur and (asking) where is the tragedy.”
“People have secrets,” Canning says. “A lot of these ‘Datelines’ are not shot in most metropolitan cities … these are smaller areas. And every time you interview people they say, ‘That doesn’t happen here, that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.’ Until it does.”
The investigation into Petito’s disappearance, whose body police found last week and whose death the coroner ruled a homicide Tuesday, is another seemingly made-for-“dateline” case. Questions of potential domestic violence resonate with the “Dateline” crew.