With the premiere on June 6, 1978 of its program 20/20, ABC Television launched its first ever news magazine. The youngest and the most troubled television network in the late 1970s, ABC was engaging in a major initiative to revise its news programming under the tutelage of its newly appointed president, Roone Arledge. Arledge targeted a number of ways in which ABC could improve its news division with the goal being to attract the average American viewer rather than news junkies. One result of this push was 20/20, which was based on the success of the CBS program 60 Minutes, which, since its premiere in 1968, had enjoyed significant popularity as a different means to present news through the use of longer segments and non-traditional news time slots.

The very first 20/20 program was hosted by Time magazine critic Robert Hughes and former Esquire editor Harold Hayes. The kick-off story featured a report on rabbit abuse at...