TV Series ‘Cops’ Canceled After 31 Years Amid National Protests

Paramount Network has decided to cancel the long-running, true-crime reality TV series: Cops after the show ran for 31 years. The show was pulled from TV following the death of George Floyd and amid the national protests that followed, but the network has now officially announced its permanent cancelation.

“Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a spokesperson for the network said.

The show which premiered on and aired for 25 seasons on Fox, was canceled by the network in 2013. Spike TV picked the show back up in 2017 and the network was rebranded as Paramount Network in 2018.

However, the show has been under scrutiny for decades. In 1994, a study showed that the viewers of Cops were more likely to associate people of color over whites with violent crime. The show was studied twice in 2004 and both studies concluded Cops was racially skewed.

Live PD, a show similar to Cops, has received criticism in the last few weeks following national Black Lives Matter protests. A&E pulled last week’s episodes of the show and that it is unlikely to air as scheduled this coming weekend. Unlike Cops though, Live PD is expected to return to television in the future. 

Cops aired over 1,100 episodes and was headed into its 33 season.