Judy Tygard Named ‘48 Hours’ EP As Susan Zirinsky Continues CBS News Realignment

CBS News President Susan Zirinsky has named Judy Tygard executive producer of 48 Hours. She had the job before being promoted to division chief early this year.

Tygard will oversee all aspects of the crime-and-justice broadcast, Zirinsky said in naming her trusted lieutenant to the gig.

Calling Tygard, who has been the show’s senior producer, “one of the best producers in all of television and an excellent leader,” Zirinsky said, “she lives and breathes 48 Hours.”

Added Tygard, “48 Hours is in my DNA.” She joined the program a producer in Season 2; it’s now in its 32nd season.

Tygard created 48 Hours: Live to Tell, a short-run series that features first-person accounts of people who have survived horrific events, documenting the challenges facing a victim of sex trafficking and the struggle of a survivor of the 2016 Brussels terror attack.

In addition to her work on 48 Hours, Tygard was co-executive producer of the The Gayle King Interview with R. Kelly and was key in the specials Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers and Flashpoint, about the roadside attack in Iraq that killed CBS News cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolin.

She also has been an integral producer in many CBS News’ primetime specials, including the upcoming Meghan and Harry Plus One and the 39 Days documentary about the student activist movement that followed the school shooting in Parkland, FL0.

Tygard began her CBS News career as a writer for anchors Bob Schieffer and Morton Dean at the CBS Evening News weekend editions. She also worked at CBS This Morning as a writer, copy editor, line producer and anchor producer.

She joined 48 Hours in 1989 as a producer. She left for a brief stint at ABC News and later returned to 48 Hours.