Last week, Karen Read was declared not guilty in the murder of his boyfriend, the Boston police officer, John O’Keefe, in a new trial that captivated the real crime fanatics after the end of the July 2024 trial could not make a verdict. Just over five hours later, ABC News deployed a special edition of “20/20” decomposing the trial with a handful of interviews near the courthouse.
In the Special, entitled “Karen Read: The Verdict”, the National ABC Correspondent of the ABC News, Matt Gutman, takes the viewers behind the scenes in the moments that followed the verdict, with interviews with Michael Proctor, the main investigator whose previous testimony has shaken the first trial, as well as the best friend of the defense of O’Keefe.
According to the demo from 18-49 (excluding sports), from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. to 10 p.m. to 10 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Since the first trial – and its lack of verdict – have obtained national attention in April 2024, the EP “20/20” Janice Johnston prioritized after the case, with a September edition of “20/20”, entitled “Karen Read: The Perfect Storm”, overflowing the case. Johnston knew that the interest in the case was not going anywhere, bringing the team to prioritize the reports on the case in Dedham, Massachusetts, where the trial took place.
“We were never preparing for Karen Read,” Johnston told Thewrap. “Once they had a jury suspended at the time, and we knew that it was going to continue, we saw the insatiable desire for more information … and this team remained on it.”
The team knew that they would pursue a special at prospective hours on the new trial, but did not know very well when a verdict would be reached – (the jury deliberations for the first trial lasted five days while the deliberations for the recovery took four days) – the writing of Johnston, which sent questions of clarification, and its “tea sheets”.
“What we are doing is trying to do is, a bit like everyone else, predicting and seeing what we think could happen,” said Johnston, noting that their attention has focused on what happened in the courtroom in advance. “What does the jury look like?” How does the courtroom feel? What is the meaning of what’s going on in the room before giving it to the jury?
Once the verdict arrived on Wednesday, Johnston and his team began to make the opening of the special, superimposed in Gutman analysis outside the courtroom.
“Matt was there outside the courtroom as happened, so that he could think about what was going on in the moment and also bring this part,” said Johnston. “For the freshness of this program, we wanted this point of immediate decision … and what can add to that as a person who has followed this story for years, who interviewed Karen himself, who stands there as she comes out.”
The team had already reserved interviews for the special, but rushed to reserve additional interviews once the non -guilty verdict has landed. Johnston also noted that the “20/20” team had helped to bring together reports and interviews that could be used in other ABC News properties, including “Good Morning America” and “ABC World News Tonight”.
The rapid turnaround was increased tenfold as “Karen Read: The Verdict” scored 2.03 million viewers, exceeding “Dateline: Karen Read Special”, which marked 1.97 million viewers on June 19, 3%. “20/20” also exceeded the “datelin” of 79% among adults aged 18 to 49 and 31% in adults 25-54, increasing “20/20” to rank as a magazine N ° 1 from Friday to all time.
When you compare the special “20/20” to competition during the same period, “Karen Read: The Verdict” surpassed NBC of 70% in adults 18 to 49, CBS of 62% and Fox by 20%. “Karen Read: The Verdict” improved over the previous period of 4 weeks of 6% in adults aged 18 to 49 and 5% in adults 25 to 54.
On Hulu, “Karen Read: The Verdict” ranked n ° 1 on the basis of views among all the titles on the streamer on Thursday June 19, Friday June 20 and Saturday June 21.
