Twenty years ago this month CBS unveiled '48 Hours.'  The name changed to '48 Hours Investigates' in 2002 and then spunoff '48 Hours Mystery' in 2003 and '48 Hours: Hard Evidence' in 2005.  Is CBS News developing another program for the '48 Hours' franchise?

Maybe.  And the new show might be called '48 Hours Live to Tell.'

First of all, CBS Broadcasting Inc. filed a trademark application last week (January 23, 2009) with the United States Patent & Trademark Office to protect '48 Hours Live to Tell' as an "on-going television series featuring crime, criminal investigations, criminal justice and current events."  Simple enough.

Then I looked around and found that a production associate listed '48 Hours Live to Tell' on his resume for August 2008.  Interesting.  So CBS News had the idea a while ago, but maybe just recently decided to move forward with it.  Why else wait so long to file the legal documents?

From a business perspective the move makes sense.  Inexpensive newsmag programming that fills a niche — crime stories from the perspective of the victim — that '48 Hours Mystery' and '48 Hours: Hard Evidence' don't really cover.  Plus, the concept makes for a compelling story.  You get to hear the victims tell their own stories while watching the investigative and legal processes in motion.