CBS has renewed its venerable newsmagazine 60 Minutes for the 2019-20 TV season and will also bring back 48 Hours for a 30th season. The news came Thursday among a slew of programming renewals by the network ahead of next week’s annual upfronts presentations in New York. 60 Minutes has been on the air for 51 years and…

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…

UPDATE:  The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is now calling 87-year-old Robert Wagner a “person of interest” in his wife’s death, a move they previously resisted. New witnesses have reportedly emerged in the 1981 drowning of actress Natalie Wood. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida issued a statement Thursday night…

Against Orange Bowl on ESPN, which clocked a metered-market 6.6 household rating, broadcasters experienced a slow Saturday. NBC’s 8-10 PM Dateline repeat episode about a murdered mother, A Cold December Morning was broadcast’s biggest scorer of the night, with a 0.8 demo rating and 4.4 million viewers –Dateline‘s…

NBC's Dateline repeat was Friday night's most popular program on a slow night kicking off New Year's weekend. The 9-11 PM newsmag broadcast won both metrics, with a 0.9 demo rating and 5.01M total viewers. Among the programs Dateline out-rated for the night: an original CBS newsmag, 48 Hours (0.6, 4.77M) at 8 PM…

Ann Rule, the former co-worker and friend of serial killer Ted Bundy who went on to become a prolific true crime writer, has died. Several of her books were turned into TV movies, and she was a frequent guest on true crime TV shows, including 48 Hours. She died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. She was…