The 24th season of Dateline NBC begins this Friday. So to celebrate, NBC threw a bash last night at–appropriately enough–John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Dateline host Lester Holt, who’d arrived after finishing his other job, took off his suit jacket telling the crowd that he was trading the 3-piece Nightly News look for the more relaxed Dateline anchor look.
TVNewser spotted LA-based Dateline correspondents Keith Morrison, Josh Mankiewicz and Dennis Murphy, as well as Andrea Canning and Natalie Morales. Canning told us the oldest of her 5 daughters is starting to get curious about mom’s job, so during a recent interview for an upcoming story, she got a look at a local jail which happened to be about a block away.
NBC News president Deborah Turness, Dateline senior ep David Corvo and ep Liz Cole mingled with Dateline producers, NBC News clients, and members of the criminal justice community — including criminal defense attorney and one-time MSNBC host Ron Kuby (remember MSNBC’s Curtis & Kuby?) Other guests included Gloria Allred, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, New York County District Attorney Cy Vance and Kim Goldman.
In keeping with the law and order theme, guests and staffers posed for mug shots, got their fingerprints taken and sipped cocktails with unique Dateline-themed names such as Clear Motive (vodka and soda), Fatal Attraction (martini) and Deadly Twist (screwdriver).
The new season of Dateline NBC premieres on Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
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