ABC TO LAUNCH THIRD MAGAZINE SERIES

Unlike NBC, which airs all of its primetime news magazines under the Dateline banner and CBS, which has two distinct news magazines, 60 Minutes and 48 Hours Mysteries, ABC continues to use two banners interchangeably for its primetime news magazines, Primetime and 20/20. Those two programs often borrow the talent and sometimes the stories that originally aired on the network’s late-night magazine, Nightline. Now, to add to the perplexity, the network has announced that it will launch a new series, Nightlineprime beginning next Thursday at 10:00 p.m. that it describes as “Nightline’s first foray into primetime series.” It has set a four-part series for the launch, “Secrets of Your Mind — Why We Do What We Do,” a title evocative of those of recent Primetime “limited series” (“Mind Games,” “Family Secrets,” “What Would You Do?”) The announcement of the new primetime series came on the same day that ABC boasted that Nightline is now beating both NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman. for the full season.