How ’20/20′ Pulled Together Its Karen Read Special and Ratings Hit on Verdict Day | Exclusive

Last week, Karen Read was found not guilty in the murder of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in a retrial that captivated true crime fanatics after the July 2024 trial ended was unable to reach a verdict. Just over five hours later, ABC News rolled out a special edition of “20/20” breaking down the trial with a handful of interviews from close to the courthouse.

In the special, titled “Karen Read: The Verdict,” ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman takes viewers behind the scenes in the moments following the verdict was announced, with interviews from Michael Proctor, the lead investigator whose previous testimony rocked the first trial, as well as O’Keefe’s best friend and Read’s defense attorney.

Airing Wednesday, June 18 from 8-10 p.m. ET, the special ranked as the No. 1 primetime program across broadcast and cable in the 18-49 demo (excluding sports) with 397,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewing figures.

Ever since the first trial — and its lack of verdict — scored national attention back in April 2024, “20/20” EP Janice Johnston prioritized following the case, with a September edition of “20/20,” titled, “Karen Read: The Perfect Storm,” unpacking the case. Johnston knew interest in the case wasn’t going anywhere, leading the team to prioritize gather reporting on the case in Dedham, Massachusetts, where the trial played out.

“We never were not preparing for Karen Read,” Johnston told TheWrap. “Once they had a hung jury back then, and we knew it was going to keep going, we saw the insatiable desire for more information … and that team just stayed on it.”

The team knew they would be pursuing a primetime special on the retrial, but didn’t quite know when a verdict would be reached — (jury deliberations for first trial ran for five days while deliberations for the retrial took four days) —prompting Johnston, who used to be a practicing attorney, and her team to read signs from the jury, including the jury sending clarifying questions, like “tea leaves.”

“What we do is try to do is, much like everyone, predict and see what we think might happen,” Johnston said, noting their attention has focused on what’s been happening in the courtroom ahead of time. “How is the jury looking? How is the courtroom feel? What’s the what’s the sense of what’s going on in the room before they give it to the jury?”

Once the verdict arrived on Wednesday, Johnston and her team began crafting the opening of the special, layering in analysis from Gutman outside the courtroom.

“Matt was there outside the courtroom as it happened, so he could reflect on what was going on in the moment and bring that part of it as well,” Johnston said. “For the freshness of that show, we wanted that immediate … decision point and what can Matt add to this as a person who has followed this story for years, who has interviewed Karen Read himself, who is standing there as she comes out.”

The team had already booked some interviews for the special, but rushed to book additional interviews once the not guilty verdict landed. Johnston also noted that the “20/20” team helped gather reporting and interviews that could be used across other ABC News’ properties, including “Good Morning America” and “ABC World News Tonight.”

The quick turnaround paid off tenfold as viewership for “Karen Read: The Verdict” scored 2.03 million viewers, outpacing NBC’s “Dateline: Karen Read Special,” which on scored 1.97 million viewers on June 19, by 3%. “20/20” also outpaced “Dateline” by 79% among adults 18-49 and 31% among adults 25-54, boosting “20/20” to rank as Friday’s No. 1 newsmagazine across the board season to date.

When comparing the “20/20” special to competition during the same time period, “Karen Read: The Verdict” outperformed NBC by 70% among adults 18-49, CBS by 62% and Fox by 20%. “Karen Read: The Verdict” improved on the prior 4-week time period by 6% among adults 18-49, and 5% among adults 25-54.

On Hulu, “Karen Read: The Verdict” ranked No. 1 based on views among all titles on the streamer on Thursday, June 19, Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21.

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