Holly Robinson Peete (3:06)

We're all proud of it.

Blaine Alexander (3:08)

Then it has to be Josh or me.

Holly Robinson Peete (3:10)

Josh, why do you like travel for stories?

Josh Mankiewicz (3:13)

Somehow I do. I always end up traveling to Paris, Texas, and not Paris, France. We read the papers all over the country. And of course, by now, we've been on the air for so long that people, cops, private eyes, attorneys, prosecutors, local TV stations, social media, they'll call us and they'll say, this looks like a great story. And we don't even know how it's going to come out. But if you wait too long, somebody else will get there ahead of you. So we start making calls as soon as we hear about things.

Keith Morrison (3:43)

Although sometimes you got to wait for a decade before you can get on television.

Josh Mankiewicz (3:46)

Well, because usually the police and prosecutors won't talk with you until it's over. So you gotta. But if you wait till it's over, you'll be beaten by everybody else.

Holly Robinson Peete (3:57)

And, Blaine, you're the new kid on the block. What can you add to this as far as, you know, stories? And what have you noticed now since you just started?

Blaine Alexander (4:05)

So, a couple of things. I mean, I think, and I've said this before, but I've been a Dateline viewer much longer than I've been a Dateline correspondent. So it's very interesting and fun to come at it from this perspective. I've always felt that there's a secret sauce about Dateline. Right. That kind of makes our show different from the others and stand out, and that's what each correspondent is able to bring. But I. I also think it's the connection that we're able to have specifically to the families. I mean, I think that one thing that really stands out is you kind of see the heart of the person that we're talking about. It's not just about this terrible thing that happened, but it's about this person, the gifts they left, the people they left behind. So I love that we're able to bring that out. And in terms of connecting to people, that's something that I've loved so far.

Lester Holt (4:42)

You know, we talk about getting to know each other in these kind of events, but it's really critical to our success of having people trust us and know us. And when we're asking people to tell what sometimes is a devastating story or a dark portion of their life or some violence that had. Had visited their family, they don't want to tell it just Anybody they want to tell it to, people they know, who they respect and who they trust.

Keith Morrison (5:05)

That might explain why we have this sort of unwritten rule at the deadline that the no jerks rule. There's another word we use another word, basically. But the people who work at our program are all wonderful people. They're brilliant, they're intelligent, but deep down they have tremendous empathy and they're very kind people.

Josh Mankiewicz (5:26)

And everybody works together really well.

Keith Morrison (5:28)

Yeah. And that's why I.

Blaine Alexander (5:29)

And no one ever leaves the show.

Josh Mankiewicz (5:31)

The people behind the camera, the people you don't see, are the big stars of Dateline. They are what make that program.

Holly Robinson Peete (5:37)

They just say, all right, Keith, just go in here and ask questions. Or do you specifically work with a producer? How does that work?

Keith Morrison (5:44)

Very much so. Very much so. It's always a partnership. And these things, you cannot go in without some sort of idea of what you need to ask this person. But then having established a kind of a program of approaching the interview, it's then it's just a conversation with somebody who is either a victim of a crime, a family of a victim of a crime or potential perpetrator.

Josh Mankiewicz (6:10)

And you know what they're going to say, because maybe you went to the trial or you heard their testimony. And I'm not talking about if they're the guilty person. You know what they're going to say if they're the prosecutor, if they're the. If they're the defense attorney, if they're a family member. So. And let them say it. I want to hear them say it, and then I'm going to ask him questions about it. And that's generally what they're not expecting. Like they want to make sure they get out that thing that they came here to say.

Blaine Alexander (6:34)

By the time we get to these interviews, all of us are so well versed in a story, Right. Either it's something that we've looked at from the very beginning or read or gone to the trial, like Josh said. So by the time we get into those interviews, you know the material, you know the information and the facts forward and backwards, and you can anticipate any sort of way that the interview could go. So you have to go in with a good level of education to be able to say, no, that's not true.

Lester Holt (6:58)

I spent so much of my career doing stories for that evening's newscast. You know, one minute and a half, two minute stories, and you go in and give an interview and you're watching the clock because you don't have time to edit. When I Did my first Dateline story. I was struck by how much it takes to get the sound bite. Interviews would go on for an hour, hour and a half, which was crazy to me. But then I realized what was happening. You'd come back around maybe the third pass at the big question, and suddenly there it was.

Blaine Alexander (7:25)

Wow.

Lester Holt (7:25)

It would reveal itself.

Keith Morrison (7:26)

I get the question asked a lot of times. How does it feel to be inside the prison, sitting with a stone cold killer, toe to toe? It's not a Hannibal Lecter, Lex Luthor master criminal experience. They're kind of dull schmoes. They tell the same old story. Wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted. And they tell it like a smooth river rock over and over. I barely get a quote out of.

Josh Mankiewicz (7:51)

It at the end of an interview. A couple of years ago, a story called after the Dance about a guy who'd been a suspect for a long time in his high school girlfriend's murder. It turned out he had never had anything to do with it. But when she was killed, he said, they killed her. And then he gave a description of one guy, and the police latched onto that discrepancy. He was under suspicion for a long time.

Holly Robinson Peete (8:16)

Wow.

Josh Mankiewicz (8:16)

And he was never charged with anything. But I had the producer, I said, tell the crew, I don't want to see his shirt collar. He's gonna be the only person that we photographed that. And everybody online was like, well, that guy's locked up.

Holly Robinson Peete (8:32)

Even when you guys do stories that we already know that are very famous, One of the ones in my homework, Lester, that you might have read that hit me was the Guiana Tragedy, the Jim Jones story.

Josh Mankiewicz (8:44)

I did that. I did that.

Holly Robinson Peete (8:45)

I had a personal connection to that. A weird personal connection. Follow me. So my mom was a manager. She managed Powers Booth, who was the actor who played Jim Jones in the Guiana store. And they needed an actress to be the first person to drink the Kool Aid and drop, right? And so, of course, she said, I'll do it. And so she did it. And I was very young and then, you know, traumatized by watching her drink Kool Aid and fall on the ground. That's a whole nother expensive psychiatrist bill. But anyway, so when you guys did it, I was like, I already know the story, but I want to see how they tell it. Yeah, I want to see how you unfold it. What are we going to see that's different? What footage did you get ahold of? And that's what I think is so special about your show is just you can take things we already know. What happened and retell the story from a different perspective.

Josh Mankiewicz (9:36)

We were lucky enough with that story, but that happened in 1978. I was covering Congress at that time, and so I knew Leo Ryan, who was killed, and we were it. Fortunately, it happened recently enough that there were people that you could still get who would talk about it. And so we got a couple of people to talk about it who had never given TV interviews before.

Holly Robinson Peete (9:57)

That's amazing. This is a random question, but you guys, because you all have such iconic voices. Lester, if you called right now to American Airlines to cancel something with that. I'm Lester Holt voice. What kind of reaction do you get now?

Lester Holt (10:18)

Sometimes people will be cool until the end. Are you related to Lester Holt on tv? It's. Yeah. I was down in Texas two weeks ago working on a project, and we had someone we needed to talk to about particular story. We couldn't track her down. We got an address. We went and literally knocked on her door, and the door opens, and I said, hi, I'm Lester hold from NBC. And she goes, oh, my God.

Josh Mankiewicz (10:44)

Oh, my God.

Lester Holt (10:45)

You look like Lester Holt. I am Lester Holt. And she invites me into the house and says, honey, Lester Holtz in the house.

Holly Robinson Peete (10:53)

What do you have to say about this, Keith? Because you're down there grimacing.

Keith Morrison (11:00)

Question number one is always, does Keith really talk like that?

Holly Robinson Peete (11:03)

Right?

Keith Morrison (11:04)

And the answer is, yes, he does. Thank goodness. I was interviewing a sheriff one time, and I was talking to this sheriff, and I was asking him questions, and I was asking him questions this way, you know, and he looked at me, and after I asked a question, he said, will you quit talking like that?

Holly Robinson Peete (11:25)

But I just love that about the show because even when it's just on, you hear these voices and you feel familiar, and you just feel it's good stuff. It's good stuff. So you guys tell stories in a way that makes you follow, but the voices and the connection is so engaging. Blaine, what's your favorite story that you've done so far? I know you haven't done as many, but, like, what stood out? Like, what kind of shook you so?

Blaine Alexander (11:49)

A lot of them, obviously are very fresh because I've been doing this less than a year. There is one, though, a story called justice for Joy, and it was about a woman who was killed. The person who did it set her house on fire. And it was her young son who discovered this. He came home from school one day. He had just gotten all A's on his report card, and he was excited to tell his mom. He was like, 11 or 12 years old. It was 30 plus years ago. I interviewed him. Obviously he's a grown man today, in his 40s, but when we talked, he was giving information that registered as an 11 year old child. And it was such an emotional interview because I could feel that coming out as a child. At the time I was pregnant with my second daughter.

Holly Robinson Peete (12:30)

Oh, wow.

Blaine Alexander (12:31)

And so anyone who's ever been pregnant in the room knows that you're very emotional just a little bit. There's a lot, there's a lot going on. But I really just identified with him so much and I just felt for him so much. So that was just one connection. It was only my second Dateline story I'd ever done, but it was a connection that I feel that I'll always have. So that always sticks with me.

Holly Robinson Peete (12:48)

True. Awesome. Andrea, what about you?

Blaine Alexander (12:54)

I mean, there's so many stories it's hard to single out. I like ones that involve some kind of adventure, you know, whether it's like those trivia things like hanging off the side of a mountain or going to Zambia on a safari, you know, things like that. There was an alleged killer that I chased down in the Virgin Islands and we were coming along on the boat and he saw us and so he shut the door and I went, oh my gosh, we missed him. Like on the catamaran, we missed him. So we went back, we got some lunch. Three hours later, I said, let's take out one of those dinghies. So we got a guy to take us on the dinghy and we all real stealth, went around the catamaran got him, just started yelling, did you kill her? Did you kill Sarm? Oh my God. And he's like, get. He's like, get out of here.

Holly Robinson Peete (13:38)

Get out of here. Wow.

Blaine Alexander (13:40)

It took a little bit. He came through second try, so. But he's alleged. Wow. He was never, Never trust.

Josh Mankiewicz (13:48)

Coming up next, the other Dateline correspondents and I are grilled by two Dateline Die Hards, the hosts of A Date with Dateline. Stick around to find out which correspondent I will would call if I were wrongly imprisoned. And the one thing Lester cannot travel without.

Keith Morrison (14:09)

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Blaine Alexander (14:41)

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Holly Robinson Peete (15:44)

The DATELINE correspondents ask a lot of questions, but how will they fare when they're the ones in the hot seat? Joining us now are the co hosts of the award winning A Date with Dateline podcast, Kimberly Arnold and Katie Mitchell. Hi, ladies.

Lester Holt (16:03)

Hello.

Holly Robinson Peete (16:04)

How are you?

Blaine Alexander (16:05)

Thank you for having us.

Holly Robinson Peete (16:06)

Oh, I'm so excited that you're here. You get to ask our guys, our ladies and gentlemen, some questions. And you guys are the real experts, so we're gonna let you take it away.

Blaine Alexander (16:17)

Well, I'm Kimberly. I'm Katie. We have some fun rapid fire questions from our listeners and some DATELINE lovers who couldn't be here tonight. But before we start, Blaine, welcome to the DATELINE family.

Lester Holt (16:30)

Thank.

Holly Robinson Peete (16:31)

Thank you.

Blaine Alexander (16:34)

Have you been the brunt of any hazing from Mank? Not that I can talk about in a public forum. No, I'm kidding. Not at all. He's been like my Dateline fairy godfather just kind of guiding me through this process. Everybody's been fantastic.

Lester Holt (16:50)

Wonderful.

Blaine Alexander (16:51)

First question for Josh Mankiewicz, AKA Sir Manke with the hanky, as we call him. If you were arrested for a crime you obviously did not commit, which host would be your one phone call from jail? I would do whatever it takes to get you off Mank.

Josh Mankiewicz (17:15)

You're superhuman. You'll hang off a building, you'll hang off a mountain. You'd wrestle a snake.

Blaine Alexander (17:23)

Yeah, I'd get it done. Even without a law degree or anything like that, I'd still find a Way. Our next question is for Lester.

Holly Robinson Peete (17:33)

You've traveled all over the world.

Blaine Alexander (17:36)

What is the one go to item for all of our world travelers out there? Something. You can't travel without toilet paper. You bring your own roll?

Lester Holt (17:48)

It depends on where I'm going. Not domestically, but when I'm going to places that are inhospitable. I've been known to that. And then, well, this is going to sound weird, but I also bring peanut butter. I can live on peanut butter for sure, you know, for a long period of time.

Blaine Alexander (18:05)

Thank you.

Holly Robinson Peete (18:07)

Good one.

Blaine Alexander (18:08)

Our next question is for Blaine. Okay. We see on Dateline often that people in their B role, if they have a special hobby or a special talent, sometimes we get to see people do that. Special talent on Dateline. Depends. It could be pottery making, things like that. If you were in a Dateline episode, what would your B roll be? My special talent. Oh, God. He could just be staring wistfully out a window, holding a cup of coffee.

Holly Robinson Peete (18:37)

It could be.

Blaine Alexander (18:38)

It's definitely not swimming. Everybody knows I'm taking swimming lessons. Cannot swim, but I'm getting there. I like to run. I don't know. I don't know if that would be. I don't know how that could incorporate itself. Running by a body of water. Yes.

Holly Robinson Peete (18:49)

Correct.

Blaine Alexander (18:50)

That would probably be it.

Josh Mankiewicz (18:51)

Slow Mo.

Holly Robinson Peete (18:51)

Yes.

Blaine Alexander (18:52)

Nailed it. Excellent question for Queen Andrea. Who would you rather interview again, Nicholas Rossi or Charlie Sheen? Oh, my gosh.

Keith Morrison (19:04)

Wow.

Blaine Alexander (19:05)

Nicholas Rossi. Question for Keith. Approximately how many things do you think you've leaned against in your lifetime? Which was your favorite? Lean. Also, what's your go to lean?

Keith Morrison (19:23)

I lean on Josh.

Holly Robinson Peete (19:24)

Aw.

Keith Morrison (19:26)

It doesn't work very well metaphorically.

Blaine Alexander (19:30)

You lean on. On this man. You love him, right? Yeah.

Keith Morrison (19:34)

Oh, come on.

Holly Robinson Peete (19:34)

Love Lane.

Blaine Alexander (19:35)

You guys give each other a hard time, but you have the best relationship bff.

Lester Holt (19:43)

You just took away the mystique.

Holly Robinson Peete (19:46)

I ruined it.

Josh Mankiewicz (19:47)

The wonderful thing about Keith is that Keith's been very tolerant of all my antics over the years. Pretty nice of him.

Blaine Alexander (19:54)

Oh, and that question was sponsored by our friend Emily, who's here, who hosts the Keith Leans on Things Instagram account. Yeah. And our final question is for Dennis. Who would you like to play you in the movie about your life and career?

Keith Morrison (20:13)

Why would anybody want to play me?

Blaine Alexander (20:17)

Or would you play yourself?

Keith Morrison (20:20)

Let's see. Who do I like? Oh, I like the guy in Slow Horses.

Lester Holt (20:25)

Gary Oldman.

Josh Mankiewicz (20:26)

Gary Oldman.

Keith Morrison (20:26)

Gary Olman.

Blaine Alexander (20:28)

What about, like, George Clooney would be good.

Keith Morrison (20:29)

Good.

Lester Holt (20:30)

George.

Blaine Alexander (20:30)

Yeah, yeah, Clooney. Yeah, done. George Clooney. Clooney could do it.

Keith Morrison (20:35)

No, no, no.

Blaine Alexander (20:35)

That'd be good.

Keith Morrison (20:36)

I'm not a Clooney.

Blaine Alexander (20:37)

Thank you so much for answering our questions. We could have asked a million more.

Josh Mankiewicz (20:41)

We have so many more.

Holly Robinson Peete (20:42)

Thank you so much.

Lester Holt (20:43)

Thank you.

Blaine Alexander (20:44)

And thank you for all you do.

Holly Robinson Peete (20:46)

Thank you. Let's give it up for Kimberly and Katie.

Blaine Alexander (20:49)

Thank you, guys.

Josh Mankiewicz (20:51)

To close out our incredible night at the pinnacle, we turn to the audience for questions. And they delivered the million dollar question. How does Dateline avoid sensationalism? And more are up next.

Blaine Alexander (21:08)

I'm Julio Vaqueiro, anchor of Noticias Telemundo. You can watch Dateline, the hit true crime series on Telemundo. And now you can listen to Dateline as a podcast. Stories of love and betrayal, of secrets revealed of the men and women who stand between evil and justice. Every twist and turn can now be heard in Spanish. With new mysteries arriving every week, just search Dateline en Espanol wherever you get your podcasts and start listening.

Keith Morrison (21:39)

Where was she? The disappearance of Carrie Farmer was quite unlike any other because Carrie hadn't exactly vanished, but retreated beyond the shadows to release rage in torrents of text messages.

Blaine Alexander (21:52)

And it just went on and on.

Keith Morrison (21:53)

And on, beyond diabolical, beyond the macabre. To murder a story straight out of left field.

Blaine Alexander (22:01)

You're on edge as to what's gonna happen next.

Keith Morrison (22:04)

I'm Keith Morrison and this is Something About Carrie, an all new podcast from Dateline. Listen to all episodes now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Blaine Alexander (22:18)

Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with Wal, one of the most influential voices in the country right now, Mel Robbins on her rise from rock bottom to an empire with a top podcast, best selling books and an international tour with the message let them. You can get my conversation with Mel.

Keith Morrison (22:40)

For free wherever you download your podcasts.

Holly Robinson Peete (22:49)

So you all ask questions and I have some here. So we gotta get. We're gonna rapid fire them. All right, Here we go. Keith, the shoes. How many pairs of Chucks do you own?

Keith Morrison (23:02)

I lost track about 25 years ago.

Holly Robinson Peete (23:04)

Okay.

Blaine Alexander (23:08)

The side of his shoe says Dateline embroidered in it.

Keith Morrison (23:10)

Yeah, these are my favorites, actually.

Holly Robinson Peete (23:11)

Oh, they say Dateline, Dateline on one side. Wow.

Keith Morrison (23:16)

Club 30 for 30 years on the other.

Holly Robinson Peete (23:18)

They're air Datelines. That's kind of cool. Josh, if you were stranded on a desert island with one Dateline correspondent, who would you choose and why?

Keith Morrison (23:27)

Gosh, for God's sake, not me.

Josh Mankiewicz (23:30)

I couldn't Listen to that constant complaining. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Blaine this time.

Keith Morrison (23:38)

Wise choice.

Blaine Alexander (23:40)

Blaine will take care of you. She'll take good care of you on the island. Cause I'll be fine.

Holly Robinson Peete (23:44)

So nice. Let's see, Blaine, what has it been like for you to step into the legacy of the newest reporter while also bringing your own perspective to the stories you tell? You got the deep question.

Blaine Alexander (23:57)

I know that is. That's not rapid fire. You know, it really has. It's been an honor, I'll say that. It's been an honor to be so welcomed and so embraced, not only by everybody here on the stage, but all of you. I've gotten the kindest words and just the kindest affirmations, and I appreciate that. It has been very fun to one stretch journalistically, but also to really kind of take this peek inside the human mind we always talk about. I've learned so much. It amazes me that there are so many people who think that murder is the best and an appropriate solution. And so I guess I've just been fascinated by doing this, by doing this job.

Keith Morrison (24:34)

I want to just add one thing, if I may.

Holly Robinson Peete (24:36)

Please.

Keith Morrison (24:36)

That there's a real learning curve to knowing how to do a Dateline story, to knowing how to do a story that's two hours long, that has to spin out over 11 or 12 acts. It's hard. She's fast. She's a quick learner and has mastered it almost instantly. It's amazing. Thank you. Just wonderful to watch, actually.

Holly Robinson Peete (24:59)

Love that. Love that. Lester, what is your favorite song to play on the bass?

Lester Holt (25:05)

Oh, you know, Lovely day.

Keith Morrison (25:08)

Ooh.

Josh Mankiewicz (25:12)

Yeah.

Lester Holt (25:13)

That's one of them.

Holly Robinson Peete (25:13)

Dennis, if you weren't a Dateline correspondent, what would you be doing?

Keith Morrison (25:19)

I would be sitting by my pool reading Harry Bosch novels, completely tired.

Holly Robinson Peete (25:25)

Someone said, I just want to hear Keith say, wow. Keith, would you say it?

Josh Mankiewicz (25:29)

Wow.

Lester Holt (25:31)

Ok.

Holly Robinson Peete (25:34)

Last question. Dateline, like all television shows, has a profit motive. How do you stick to sincere storytelling and avoid sensationalism?

Keith Morrison (25:47)

We don't have to think about that. You know, we do a story because we do a story. We want to do the best we possibly can. If it makes money, well, you know, lucky for NBC, if it doesn't, lucky for me.

Holly Robinson Peete (26:03)

That's the best answer I could think of. Anybody else want to follow that up or.

Josh Mankiewicz (26:07)

I like this new Keith After Dark thing.

Holly Robinson Peete (26:12)

Keith After Dark.

Josh Mankiewicz (26:14)

Like a different guy.

Holly Robinson Peete (26:15)

I love it. This has been an absolutely incredible evening. I mean, now when you watch Dateline, you can say these are all your besties, because we've all been hanging out.

Keith Morrison (26:27)

Wow.

Josh Mankiewicz (26:27)

Great. Thank you.

Holly Robinson Peete (26:30)

Thank you all for coming out tonight. And I want to thank the Pinnacle for hosting us tonight. We really appreciate their hospitality and thank you all for coming out, really, and letting me do this. This has been a pinch me moment.