True Crime TV Next Week (Sept. 14–20, 2026): One New Dateline, and 20/20 and 48 Hours Are Dark
Bottom line — the week of Sept. 14–20 had exactly one new case on it, and it landed Friday night. This page is a dated look-ahead for that week; our True Crime TV This Week grid carries the current listings.
- Monday through Thursday: none of the three newsmagazines is scheduled.
- Friday, Sept. 18: Dateline airs "The Man Who Loved Christmas" at 10 p.m. ET, not the usual 9. ABC has no 20/20.
- Saturday, Sept. 19: CBS was in college football again, so there was no 48 Hours.
What is on Monday through Thursday?
Nothing from Dateline, 20/20 or 48 Hours. All three are Friday-and-Saturday shows, and none of the networks has slotted a midweek special.
NBC's Monday is the 78th Emmy Awards, 8–11 p.m. ET. Tuesday and Wednesday belong to America's Got Talent semifinals, and Thursday brings new Traitors episodes plus a Voice anniversary hour. Useful to know if you are hunting for the remote, less useful if you came for a case.
| Night (ET) | Dateline | 20/20 | 48 Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon., Sept. 14 | — | — | — |
| Tue., Sept. 15 | — | — | — |
| Wed., Sept. 16 | — | — | — |
| Thu., Sept. 17 | — | — | — |
| Fri., Sept. 18 | New — "The Man Who Loved Christmas," 10 p.m. ET, Blayne Alexander | Not scheduled | — |
| Sat., Sept. 19 | — | — | Not scheduled — CBS has football |
| Sun., Sept. 20 | — | — | — |
Is Dateline new on Friday, Sept. 18?
Yes. NBC settled it on Sept. 15 by posting a preview: the hour is called "The Man Who Loved Christmas," Blayne Alexander reports, and the case is the killing of Harold Allen. The network lists it at 10/9c, an hour later than Dateline's usual Friday slot.
Here is how the question stood before that, and why the answer took until midweek.
NBC's primetime schedule for the period lists Dateline NBC on Friday, Sept. 18, after two hours of Traitors repeats. But NBC's own season-35 page says the new season starts the following Friday, Sept. 25, and no title, correspondent or case has been attached to the Sept. 18 hour.
Both things can be true. Dateline has been running episodes outside its numbered season all summer — the Sept. 11 hour, Facing Ground Zero, was one of them, and it was not part of season 35 either. So an hour on Sept. 18 would sit in the same category: a Dateline broadcast, not a season-35 episode.
That is how it looked on Monday, and it is how the hour has turned out: a Dateline broadcast carrying a case, sitting outside the numbered season that begins the following week. We said we would add the title here as soon as NBC released it, and no later than Thursday, Sept. 17 — added Thursday morning, Sept. 17. What we still do not have is a synopsis; NBC's preview names the case and nothing more, so we are not going to describe it for them. Our Dateline page gets the full preview the day it airs.
Is 20/20 on Friday, Sept. 18?
No. ABC's fall announcement puts the 20/20 season 49 premiere on Friday, Sept. 25 at 9/8c, and the network has not published a Friday, Sept. 18 primetime lineup that includes the show.
That is a two-week gap for ABC viewers. The last new hour was the Lindsay Clancy special on Sept. 4, which ABC moved into the schedule late and which ended with a mistrial the same day it aired.
Why is 48 Hours missing again on Saturday?
Same reason as the Saturday before: CBS carried college football. The network's 2026 schedule had a doubleheader on Sept. 19, USC at Rutgers at 3:30 p.m. ET and BYU at Colorado State at 7:30 p.m. ET, and a 7:30 kickoff runs straight through the 10 p.m. hour.
There is a second, simpler reason. 48 Hours was between seasons. CBS's own schedule page listed season 39 for Saturday, Oct. 17 (it showed Oct. 10 until a Sept. 29 update), so there was no new episode to preempt. The most recent Saturday with anything on it was the Sept. 5 encore double feature.
When did each show come back?
| Show | Returns | Time (ET) | Network | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dateline NBC (season 35) | Fri., Sept. 25 | 9 p.m. | NBC | Peacock, next day |
| 20/20 (season 49) | Fri., Sept. 25 | 9 p.m. | ABC | Hulu, next day |
| 48 Hours (season 39) | Sat., Oct. 17 | 10 p.m. | CBS | Paramount+, next day |
One correction to the grid above: the Friday, Sept. 18 hour started at 10 p.m. ET, while the Sept. 25 premieres started at 9, so the two Fridays were not the same time slot.
Two of the three were set to return on the same Friday night at the same hour, Sept. 25, which had not happened since spring. Anyone watching both had one of them as a next-day stream.
What time is each one in my time zone?
| Time zone | Dateline / 20/20 (Sept. 25) | 48 Hours (Oct. 17) |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern | 9:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. |
| Central | 8:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| Pacific | 9:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. |
Mountain-time stations usually carry the Central feed an hour earlier, at 8 p.m. MT for the Friday shows. That one varies by affiliate, so it is the single line on this page worth double-checking against your own listings.
Our longer breakdown of channels, feeds and apps is in the how-to-watch guide, which we keep current through the season.
What can I watch in the meantime?
Cases move whether or not the cameras are rolling, and three of them had court news close to that week.
- Richard Allen's appeal in the Delphi murders was set for oral argument on Monday, Sept. 21 in Indianapolis; our Delphi update tracks the case.
- As of a Sept. 8 hearing, Barry Morphew was out on a $10 million bond and under house arrest.
- The Menendez brothers had their parole review pulled forward to March 2027.
The full run is in our case files, and the running grid, which covers the 9/11 special that led into this quiet stretch, is here.
👉 The date this week pointed to was Friday, Sept. 25 — two premieres, one hour, two networks.
FAQ
Was Dateline new in the week of Sept. 14–20? Yes: NBC scheduled "The Man Who Loved Christmas" for Friday, Sept. 18 at 10 p.m. ET. The season 35 premiere was set for Sept. 25.
What happened to 48 Hours that week? It was between seasons. CBS's schedule page listed season 39 for Saturday, Oct. 17, and CBS had football in the Saturday primetime slot until then.
Where can I stream the three shows? Past Dateline episodes are on Peacock, 20/20 on Hulu, and 48 Hours on Paramount+ and its free channel on Pluto TV.
Sources
- NBC primetime schedule listings for Sept. 9–29, 2026 (from NBC's press listings)
- NBC Insider — Everything to Know About Dateline Season 35
- ABC — Fall 2026 premiere dates and primetime schedule
- CBS News — "48 Hours" show schedule, updated Sept. 10, 2026
- CBS Sports 2026 college football television schedule
Listings data via TVmaze.