UPDATED 6/10, 9:28 p.m. ET: A&E has canceled Live PD, Varietyreports.
"This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live PD," the network said in a statement. "Going forward, we will determine if there is a clear pathway to tell the stories of both the community and the police officers whose role it is to serve them. And with that, we will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments."
Live PD has been criticized for filming the death of Javier Ambler in March 2019. Ambler, who was tased several times and told police he couldn't breath, died after being stopped by Williamson County sheriff’s deputies over a traffic violation. A&E later said they destroyed the footage.
See original story below.
According to The Hollywood Reporter,Paramount Network has decided to cancel the show Cops amid nationwide protests taking place due to George Floyd's death.
The show had been scrubbed from the cable network's upcoming schedule, and now they say they're axing the long-running program for good.
"Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return," said a spokesperson.
Paramount Network, which was called 'Spike' up until 2018, snagged the show in 2013 after it had aired for 24 years on Fox. The program debuted in 1989, and had piled up 32 seasons prior to this latest development. In addition to broadcasting their most recent episodes, Paramount Network also holds syndication rights for a lot of the series' past catalog. At the moment old episodes can still be seen on WGN America and the streaming service Pluto TV (which is owned by ViacomCBS, the same company that owns Paramount Network). THR reports that WGN is only committed to the series through the end of June, and that they have no plans to renew it when that run is up.
The show had been set to premiere its 33rd season on Monday, but obviously that never happened. At this point it's been at least nine days since the Paramount aired any episode of the series.
Similarly, A&E yanked Live PD from their slate this past week. The show is very much in the same style of Cops, except that it follows officers in real time.
That series had been renewed for 160 additional episodes just over a month ago, on May 7. But a source speaking for A&E told THR it's "unlikely" that new episodes will run on Friday and Saturday, though they could end up re-evaluating.
Also a third show, Body Cam, which runs of Discovery ID, has been chopped from that station's schedule without any current plan for a return.
