20/20 (American TV program): History and Key Facts

20/20 (stylized as 2020) is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the program was designed as a counterpart to CBS's 60 Minutes in that it features in-depth story packages, although it focuses more on human interest stories. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity.

The two-hour program has been airing at 9:00 p.m ET for much of the time since it moved to that timeslot from Thursdays in September 1987, though special editions of the program occasionally air on other nights. For most of its history, it was preceded by ABC's two-hour TGIF block of sitcoms.

In 2019, it shifted to a two-hour format highlighting true crime stories and celebrity scandals rather than the traditional investigative journalism associated with newsmagazines, following the same programming direction as CBS's 48 Hours and same-night competitor Dateline NBC. Special edition episodes, however, cover a wide range of topics.

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