Cops stylized as COPS is an American reality legal television documentary programming series that is currently in its 36th season. It is produced by Langley Productions [3] and premiered on the Fox network on March 11, Some episodes have also featured federal agencies. Each episode typically consists of three self-contained segments which often end with one or more arrests. It is one of the longest-running television shows in the United States and, in May , it became the longest-running show on Fox since then, its duration has been surpassed by the duration of The Simpsons.
It also became the longest running live action series on Fox. When America's Most Wanted was canceled after 23 years, the show's host John Walsh , made numerous appearances on Cops. In late , during the premiere of its 20th season, episodes of Cops began broadcasting in widescreen , though not in high definition. In June , Paramount Network pulled the show from its schedule in response to George Floyd protests following his death while under arrest by the Minneapolis Police Department , [7] and announced its cancellation days later.
The 34th season premiered in September Following a three month hiatus, the show returned on October 6. Cops was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour , who tried unsuccessfully for several years to get a network to carry the program. When the Writers Guild of America strike forced them to find other kinds of programming, the young Fox Television network picked up the low-cost Cops , which had no union writers. The program premiered on Fox on March 11, The program was one of only two remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.
Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in For the first 25 seasons, Cops was broadcast by Fox with reruns of earlier seasons syndicated by local television stations and cable networks, including truTV and G4.
On August 21, , Cops celebrated its 1,th episode with a live special called Cops: Beyond the Bust , hosted by Terry Crews who plays a police sergeant in the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine , which included historical clips from the run of the program as well as reunions of officers and the suspects that they arrested. In the wake of the protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota under police custody, Paramount Network pulled the series from the air ahead of its season 33 premiere, which was scheduled for June 1, On June 9, , a network spokesperson announced " Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don't have any current or future plans for it to return".
