Cops is leaving TV screens behind.
Per Deadline, the long-running reality TV series has been canceled after almost seven years on the cabler.
“Cops is not on the Paramount Network, and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a network spokesperson said in a statement.
The docuseries, which followed real law enforcement professionals from around the country as they patrolled the local streets and arrested criminals, first launched back in 1989 on Fox.
The series aired there on Saturday nights for more than two decades until it was canceled in 2013.
It did not stay on the TV scrap heap for long, however, with Spike TV stepping in to pick it up soon after.
New episodes arrived on the cabler that same year. Despite some uncertainty about its future when Spike TV rebranded to Paramount Network in 2018, the series' future was confirmed when the cabler ordered additional seasons.
To date, 32 seasons and more than 1,100 episodes of Cops have aired.
Worldwide protests against systemic racism and police violence made many wonder whether there was still a place for Cops on TV screens, and it appears Paramount has made its final decision.
The most recent season was slated to debut June 8, but Paramount decided to halt the premiere last week.
Live PD was also pulled off the schedule at the time, but the network has not yet made a decision on the future of it.
“Out of respect for the families of George Floyd and others who have lost their lives, in consultation with the departments we follow, and in consideration for the safety of all involved, we have made the decision not to broadcast Live PD this weekend,” A&E Network said in a statement to Variety at the time.
Rescue PD, a spinoff of Live PD aired in its place last week, and it looks like that could continue for the foreseeable future.
The civil rights group Color of Change began a campaign in 2013 urging Fox not to renew Cops and called on advertisers to withdraw support.
Since the series made its debut in 1989, the group said, the network, the show’s producers and the advertisers “have built a profit model around distorted and dehumanizing portrayals of black Americans and the criminal justice system.”
Post a Comment