20/20

Among the most recognized and revered television newsmagazines, “20/20” was ABC’s answer to CBS’s “60 Minutes”. Though some stories were humorous, light-hearted and sometimes frivolous features, the meat of “20/20’s” programming was investigative reporting many times exposing corporate, medical, educational and governmental wrongdoing, incompetence and criminal negligence and reports on news events of the week from (often) different angles than was seen on the nightly news. Though most of the reports proved to be factual, some were heralded as sensationalist; others led to allegations of libel while at least one story later proved to be an embarrassing hoax. The show’s current co-anchors are John Stossel and Elizabeth Vargas. 20/20 is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the show was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes but focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity. The hour-long program has been a staple on Friday evenings 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.