Overview
- Disney+ formally approved the first non-U.S. version of ABC News’ 20/20 on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, and set a near-term launch with the series due to begin rolling out on July 30.
- The six-episode series, titled 20/20 Britain’s Most Notorious Crime Investigations, reexamines high-profile British cases including Ben Needham, Joanna Yeates, Jane Andrews, Ben Field, Peter Tobin, and Mahek Bukhari.
- The Ben Needham episode will be released first and the remaining episodes will follow on a weekly schedule on Disney+ in the UK and on Disney+ and Hulu in the U.S.
- Candle True Stories, run by former ABC News executive James Goldston, won the production tender and is co-producing with ABC News Studios with named executive producers and a commissioning lead at Disney+ EMEA.
- Disney+ EMEA describes the project as the start of a bigger true-crime push that uses higher unscripted budgets to compete with Netflix and Prime Video while raising editorial and ethical questions about revisiting well-known cases and the impact on those involved.