In 1994 Dateline NBC commissioned Michael Karp to do a new theme package for them. This result is one of the best themes used on a newsmagazine. For most of the time that this theme was used, Stone Phillips and Jane Pauley co-anchored the program. Pauley retired; Philips was forced out. Today Ann Curry is the primary anchor of the NBC newsmagazine.

This is the original Dateline NBC theme by Michael Karp. During its first few years Dateline shared the set with NBC Nightly News. Dateline is NBC’s first successful attempt at creating a newsmagazine, but it came very close to cancellation. In 1992 the program featured a report about GM pickup trucks carrying exploding fuel tanks. Dateline’s credibility was nearly destroyed when it was later revealed that the exploding fuel tanks that were shown in the report, exploded only because they were rigged with explosives. Various people involved in the story were fired, Dateline rebounded and is still on the air today.