Is 48 Hours New Tonight? CBS Schedule, Football Preemptions and Season 39
Correction (Oct. 20): an earlier version called Larry Millete’s wife “May.” CBS News, which covered her case for 48 Hours, writes her name as Maya (May) Millete, and NBC 7 San Diego calls her Maya.
If you turned on CBS looking for 48 Hours and found a football game, you are not imagining it. The show was off the air on most Saturdays from mid-September to Oct. 10, and there is a simple reason.
Is 48 Hours new tonight?
Saturday, Oct. 31 is listed as new: as of Oct. 29, CBS's schedule page lists "Jade Benning's Final Call" at 10/9c. Season 39 opened Saturday, Oct. 17 with two new hours after a run of Saturdays when CBS had college football in the slot.
CBS's schedule page lists the Season 39 premiere night, Saturday, Oct. 17, as a double feature starting at 9/8c, and listed Oct. 10 as preempted, as it did Oct. 3. The 48 Hours page names the two hours: "The Corn Rake Witness" (9/8c) and "The Detective & the Chewing Gum Sting" (10/9c). Some listings sites carried Oct. 10 into that week — the date CBS's page showed before its Sept. 29 update. That night brought the first new hour since the spring.
Why does football keep taking the hour?
CBS carries a college football doubleheader on fall Saturdays, and the late game regularly runs past 10 p.m. ET. When it does, the network drops the newsmagazine rather than joining it in progress.
This happened on Sept. 12, Sept. 19, Sept. 26, Oct. 3 and Oct. 10, going by CBS's own schedule page. That makes at least five Saturdays with no new episode before the season starts.
What time is 48 Hours on?
| Time zone | Regular slot | Season 39 premiere (CBS schedule page) |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern | 10 p.m. Saturday | Sat., Oct. 17, from 9 p.m. (double feature) |
| Central | 9 p.m. | Sat., Oct. 17, from 8 p.m. (double feature) |
| Mountain | 9 p.m. (check your local CBS station) | Sat., Oct. 17, 9 p.m. |
| Pacific | 10 p.m. | Sat., Oct. 17, from 9 p.m. (double feature) |
Some weeks CBS runs two hours, at 9 and 10 p.m. ET. Sports overruns push everything later, so a DVR set to the hard slot can clip the ending.
👉 On football Saturdays, record the following program too. That is where the last ten minutes usually land.Where can you stream 48 Hours right now?
- Paramount+ — new episodes the next day, plus a deep archive.
- The 48 Hours FAST channel — free, running around the clock on several platforms.
- CBSNews.com and the show's YouTube page — full episodes, no login.
- Pluto TV and, for some seasons, Netflix.
Our viewing guide lists the same thing for Dateline and 20/20, which stream on Peacock and Hulu respectively.
What are the encores CBS has been running?
Two turn up often enough to be worth knowing, and both have endings.
"The Gaslighting of Hannah Pettey." A young mother in Hartselle, Alabama, spent roughly six months in 2021 getting sicker with no explanation. After a seizure in January 2022 doctors found what CBS News described as an astonishing amount of lead in her body, and the medical mystery turned into a criminal case. Her husband, chiropractor Brian Mann, supplied the vitamin capsules she took daily. A jury convicted him of attempted murder in June 2025 and he was sentenced to life that August. Pettey survived.
"Tracker Dakota Black." Makayla Meave, a teacher's aide in Macomb, Oklahoma, disappeared on Sept. 15, 2023. Lt. Dakota Black of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office is a trained tracker, and the search he ran shaped the investigation. Meave's body was found five days later. Her husband, Frank Byers, was arrested 38 days after she vanished, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and is serving life without parole.
What do the other two newsmagazines have on?
More than CBS, for once. Dateline opened Season 35 on Friday, Sept. 25, with two hours on NBC, and 20/20 started Season 49 the same night on ABC; both had new hours on Fridays Oct. 2, 9 and 16, and Dateline had another on Oct. 23 — the current week sits in our night-by-night grid.
The Dateline page and the 20/20 page track each show's schedule the same way this one does.
Which 48 Hours cases are still moving?
Several. Larry Millete, convicted in the disappearance of his wife Maya, was due to be sentenced in San Diego on Sept. 29; the hearing was moved to Nov. 2. Kouri Richins was ordered to pay $1.37 million in restitution in Utah.
A no-body case, the Naresh Bhatt trial in Virginia, began with jury selection on Monday, Oct. 5, and testimony started Wednesday, Oct. 7; the case update has the latest. Follow-ups collect in Case Updates, and everything from this show sits in the 48 Hours section.
FAQ
Is 48 Hours new tonight? Yes, on Saturday, Oct. 31: as of Oct. 29, CBS News' schedule page lists "Jade Benning's Final Call" at 10/9c. The two Saturdays before it were new too: Oct. 24 ("What the Cameras Saw" at 9/8c and "The Mansion Above Dale Hollow Lake" at 10/9c) and the Oct. 17 premiere double feature from 9 p.m. ET. It was not on Oct. 3 or Oct. 10, which CBS's schedule page lists as preempted.
What channel is 48 Hours on? CBS, Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT, with a second hour some weeks.
Where do old episodes live? Paramount+, the 48 Hours FAST channel, CBSNews.com and the show's YouTube page.
Air times checked against the CBS News 48 Hours episode schedule. Listings data via TVmaze.
Sources
- CBS News — 48 Hours episode schedule, football preemptions and the Oct. 17 Season 39 premiere (updated Oct. 1)
- CBS News — the Hannah Pettey lead-poisoning case
- CBS News — the Makayla Meave case and the tracker who worked it
- News 9 (Oklahoma City) — local reporting on the Meave investigation
- TVmaze — 48 Hours episode listings