ABC’s ’20/20′ cave rescue special goes big

After releasing a teaser graphic for its special edition of “20/20” documenting the nearly four week ordeal of rescuing the soccer team trapped in the Tham Luang caves, ABC strayed a bit from this original look in the special’s final look but still packed with more refined production values and techniques.

The first, and most notable, change was switching to the name “Triumph in Thailand” instead of the “Thailand Rescue: Race Against Time” title featured in the teaser graphic the network released Tuesday, July 10, 2018.

It’s not clear why the name was switched — though “Trump in Thailand” certainly has a more positive ring to it, as well as being alliterative. 

The new title also switched to what appears to be Trajan, where the teaser image appeared to used a slightly different typeface. 

For the special, the word “Triumph” is set in larger letters, with “in Thailand” below in smaller letters. Above this, the “20/20” logo and italic rendition of the word “Special” is included.

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The logo is prominently featured in the brief, stylized clips of Thailand landscapes used when returning from commercial breaks.

ABC opted to leave a ghosted version of the logotype, along with the “#ABC2020” hashtag, up during almost the entire special. Lower third graphics, though used sparingly, where placed to the immediate right of this bug.

Hosted by David Muir and Amy Robach in New York, who introduced the show from in front of a monitor wall showcasing imagery from the rescue operation — forgoing the show’s normal use of the “World News Tonight” video wall, which was recently updated to a seamless look, and large “20/20” dimensional logo wheeled onto the set.