A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Cops | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Genre | Reality |
| Created by | John Langley Malcolm Barbour |
| Developed by | Stephen Chao |
| Directed by | Dale Dimmick Gabriel Koura |
| Narrated by | Burt Lancaster (pilot episode) Harry Newman |
| Opening theme | "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle |
| Composers | Michael Lewis (pilot) Nathan Wang (season 1) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English[a] |
| No. of seasons | 36 |
| No. of episodes | 1,175 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | John Langley Malcolm Barbour (1989–1994, seasons 1–6) |
| Producers | Andy Thomas (1989, season 1) Paul Stojanovich (1989–1990, season 2) Bertram van Munster (1990–1997, seasons 3–9) Murray Jordan (1997–2001, seasons 10–13) Jimmy Langley (2001–present, seasons 14–present) Morgan Langley (2007–present, seasons 20–present) |
| Running time | 30 minutes (season 1–3) 30–37 minutes (season 4–present) |
| Production companies | Barbour/Langley Productions (1989–1999, seasons 1–11) Fox Television Stations Productions (1989–2013) 20th Century Fox Television (1989–1992, seasons 1–3/1995–2013, seasons 6–25) 20th Television (1992–1995, seasons 4-5) Langley Productions (1999-present, seasons 12–present)[1] Spike Original Programming (2013–2017, seasons 26–30) Paramount Network Original Productions (2018–2020, seasons 30–32) Fox Entertainment (season 33–present) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox (1989–2013) Paramount Network (2013–2020)[2] Fox Nation (2021–present) |
| Release | March 11, 1989 – present |
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, 1989. The series, known for chronicling the lives of law enforcement officials, follows police officers and sheriff's deputies, sometimes backed up by state police or other state agencies, during patrol, calls for service, and other police activities including prostitution and narcotic stings, and occasionally the serving of search/arrest warrants at criminal residences. Some episodes have also featured federal agencies. The show's formula follows the cinéma vérité convention, which does not consist of any narration, scripted dialogue or incidental music/added sound effects, depending entirely on the commentary of the officers and on the actions of the people with whom they come into contact, giving the audience a fly on the wall point of view. 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 2011, 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.[4][5] In 2013, the program moved to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network.[6]
In late 2007, during the premiere of its 20th season, episodes of Cops began broadcasting in widescreen, though not in high definition. In June 2020, 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.[8] The show remains in production for its international and overseas partners, and began to film anew in Spokane County, Washington, with its sheriff's department in October 2020.[9] In September 2021, it was announced that Fox Nation picked up the show. The 34th season premiered in September 2022.[10][11][12][13] Season 35 premiered on April 7, 2023. Following a three month hiatus, the show returned on October 6.[14] Season 36 would premiere on April 5, 2024 with several episodes featuring beach patrol officers during spring break.[15][16]
History
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 1988 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.[6][17]
The program premiered on Fox on March 11, 1989.[6][18] When the show went primetime in 1991, and consisted of two episodes in the 8 p.m. hour, it was called Primetime Cops in promos for several years. The program was one of only two remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with CBS's 48 Hours Mystery). Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.
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.[19] After Fox canceled the show in May 2013, Spike picked it up[6] for an additional five seasons, in addition to reruns of previous seasons.[2] The 30th season premiered on June 17, 2017.[20]
On August 21, 2017, Cops celebrated its 1,000th 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.[21] The date of the 1,000th episode also marked a shift of episode premieres from Saturdays to Mondays.[22]
The show follows officers in 140 different cities in the United States, Hong Kong, London, and the Soviet Union.[23]
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, 2020. On June 9, 2020, 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".[7][8] The episode "Party in a Box" (season 28, episode 20, originally aired December 12, 2015) featured Atlanta Police Department Officer Garrett Rolfe, who in 2020 was charged with the killing of Rayshard Brooks during a driving under the influence investigation.[24]
In September 2020, Cops resumed production. The new episodes were being produced for international syndication and to fulfill contracts overseas that had not expired; Langley did not secure a domestic distributor until 2021.[25] Rocket Rights picked up the show for distribution outside the United States in early-2021, with Langley's distribution unit, Langley Television Distribution (as of 2021) handling sales in the United States.
On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Fox Nation had picked up the show. The 33rd season premiered on October 1, 2021.[26][11] Fox Nation would then premiere the show's 34th season on September 30, 2022.[12][13]
Production
Cops was created by John Langley and his producing partner Malcolm Barbour. In 1983 they were working on Cocaine Blues,[27] a television series about drugs. As part of his research Langley went on a drug raid with drug enforcement officers and was inspired to create a show focusing on real-life law enforcement. Before that, there had been only a few instances of cinéma vérité productions documenting the work of police officers, such as Roger Graef's Police in 1982.[28]
In the late 1980s, after producing the live syndicated specials American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, Murder: Live From Death Row, and Devil's Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground all with Geraldo Rivera, Langley and Barbour pitched the Cops show concept to Stephen Chao, a Fox programming executive who would one day become president of the Fox Television Stations Group and later USA Network. Chao liked the concept and pitched it to Barry Diller, then Chief Executive Officer of the Fox Network. Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.
A Writers Guild of America strike was occurring at the time and the network needed new material. An unscripted show that did not require writers was ideal for Fox. The first season aired in 1989 and consisted of 15 episodes featuring the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Since then, it has often been one of the highest-rated reality-TV programs, in part due to its low production cost (estimated at US$200,000 per episode in the early 1990s) and thus its capacity to show new material each week.[28]
The original concept of the show was to follow officers home and tape their home lives along with their work. After a while the idea of following officers home was deemed too artificial by Langley and was abandoned. Thereafter, the format of three self-contained unscripted segments without narration or music became the show's formula.
Since the third episode of Season 2, every episode ends with a police radio excerpt referencing the intersection of SE 132nd Ave. and SE Bush St. in the Powellhurst-Gilbert, Portland, Oregon neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.[29] A female officer says, "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", and a female dispatcher replies, "132 and Bush. Cover's Code 3." Another woman says, "Units 25, 14 can transmit on Tac 2", and the dispatcher replies, "Okay, we'll still send it Code 3." Then an instrumental version of "Bad Boys" plays over the credits.[30] On the first season of Cops, instead of "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", it was a police radio excerpt from the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Office. In the first two episodes of the second season, a different police radio excerpt from the Portland Bureau of Police was used.
Cops aired on Fox's traditional Saturday-night lineup since its debut in 1989. As of 2012, the program retained its traditional time slot, but aired more intermittently as Fox Sports scheduled more sports programming in Saturday-night primetime, with NASCAR on Fox in the late winter and spring, Major League Baseball on Fox throughout the spring and summer, Fox College Football in the fall, and various Fox UFC throughout the year. Cops was then scheduled on weeks without any sporting events, followed by an encore presentation of a Fox drama series.
In 2013, it was announced that Fox had cancelled the program. However, it was later announced that Spike TV had picked up the program for another season.[31][32] In August 2017, Spike moved the show's time slot to Monday.
Agencies featured
| International agencies | |
|---|---|
| Countries | Agencies |
| USSR | Militsiya |
| United Kingdom | Metropolitan Police |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong Police Force |
Camera crew involvement
In one episode, the production sound mixer for the camera crew, a former emergency medical technician, assisted a police officer in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (season 2, episode 7).[citation needed]
In an episode in season 11 that took place in 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia, camera operator Si Davis, who was a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reserve police officer, dropped the camera and assisted an Atlanta police officer in wrestling a suspect into custody. It turned out that the APD officer had been injured during a foot pursuit; meanwhile, mixing console Steve Kiger picked up the camera and continued recording the action, which eventually made the air (season 11, episode 5).
In another episode, a rape suspect fled and outran officers, only to have the cameraman follow him the entire time, until police caught up to the suspect and subdued him (season 10, episode 19).
In an episode of season 14 (2001–2002), during the arrest of a man after a car chase in Hillsborough County, Florida, the sound mixer held the suspect's sister away from the deputy after she tried to intervene in her brother's arrest.
During the first episode of season 22, which aired on September 12, 2009, an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was tackled by a suspect. The camera operator and Las Vegas Fire Department firefighter/paramedics wrestled the suspect away from the officer.[citation needed]
In episode 17 of season 26 that aired on February 1, 2014, during the arrest of a man in Sacramento, California, for battery on his girlfriend, one of the camera crew pulled one of the suspect's American pit bull terrier away from one of the arresting officers. The dog was biting the officer on the leg after being commanded to do so by the suspect.[citation needed]
During the recording of episode 7 in Season 27, the camera crew assisted in detaining the passenger of a vehicle whose operator had fled on foot from officers in Lafayette, Louisiana. As police chased the driver, who successfully evaded arrest, the camera crew secured the vehicle by giving directions to the passenger; at one point, the camera operator can be seen gesturing to the passenger to place the latter's hands on the dashboard.[citation needed]
2014 Wendy's shooting incident
On August 26, 2014, at roughly 9:20 p.m., a Cops crew was recording with the Omaha Police Department in Omaha, Nebraska, during their final week working with them since arriving in June. A police officer drove to a Wendy's restaurant during a robbery and called for backup. One of the other responding officers had a two-person Cops crew (a cameraman and audio technician Bryce Dion) present in his or her cruiser. The crew began recording the robbery inside Wendy's.[34][35]
Authorities later identified the robber as 32-year-old Cortez Washington, whom police shot several times during the shootout. A police officer fired through a window, hitting Dion (wearing a bullet-resistant vest) once under the arm. Medics transported both to the hospital, and both died, with Dion being pronounced dead shortly after arrival.[36][37][38][39]
The 38-year-old Dion had worked on Cops for seven years. Langley Productions stated that, in 25 years of video recording, this was the first incident in which a crew member was seriously injured or killed.[35] A Cops crew working in Springfield, Missouri, also wrapped following the Omaha incident.[40] In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode.[41]
The robbery's events took only seconds to happen.[42] Detective Darren Cunningham responded to the call while the Cops crew accompanied Officer Brooks Riley and Officer Jason Wilhelm. Cunningham and Riley entered the front door and unholstered their firearms, while Wilhelm went to the restaurant's back part to cover an emergency exit door that opens only from indoors. Cunningham and Riley approached Washington, who was at the restaurant's back part and did not see the officers arrive. For unknown reasons, Washington walked to the front counter, where the officers identified him and told him to lie on the floor—but Washington immediately pointed and fired a pistol while moving toward the officers, who returned fire. Cunningham retreated into the hallway toward the restroom and kept firing at Washington, who had then turned the corner and stood where the officers had initiated contact. Riley moved around a column and into the waiting aisle at the counter. As Washington passed the uniformed police officer, he aimed his weapon toward the officer and continued firing as he moved toward the front exit. Dion was caught in the ensuing crossfire as the officer returned fire at Washington, who stumbled into the parking lot and fell from his injuries before his arrest.
After the scene was secured, authorities learned that Washington's pistol was actually an airsoft handgun that strongly resembled a real Taurus firearm.[43]
Authorities placed the three police officers on paid leave pending the result of an investigation into the shooting. A grand jury acquitted all three of misconduct.[44]
Washington had a lengthy criminal record in Wyandotte County, Kansas. At the time of the Wendy's robbery, he was on parole in Missouri, having been released in September 2013 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence as an accessory to second-degree robbery of a jewelry store, to which he pleaded guilty. In determining sentences and eligibility for parole, Missouri law does not consider criminal records in other states.[39] Approximately 20 minutes before the Wendy's robbery, his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jeneva Arias, robbed a Little Caesars pizza restaurant, using the same airsoft pistol; Washington served as her getaway driver.[45] Arias in turn was to be Washington's getaway driver in the Wendy's robbery, but fled. While in jail awaiting trial, she committed felony assault via throwing a soap mixture into a health care worker's face and fracturing a jailer's hand. Authorities gave Arias a plea bargain, and she pleaded no contest to reduced charges, and they sentenced her to a maximum of six years in jail through concurrent sentencing.[46]
Bryce Dion's brother, Trevor Dion, filed a lawsuit in February 2016 against the City of Omaha, alleging that inadequate communication and coordination between dispatchers and the officers arriving at the scene contributed to Dion's death. The suit also blames the authorities' decision to invite the Cops video crew to go with officers.[47][48] On April 24, 2018, a Douglas County District Judge refused the City of Omaha's request to bar the release of the video of the robbery-shooting at Wendy's and ordered the City of Omaha to release all materials related to the death of Bryce Dion, of which only still frames had been previously released.[49] On April 25, 2018, the video recorded by the Cops camera crew was released. The video was shown in open court and the Omaha World-Herald requested a copy, which it later released.[50] Trevor Dion's lawsuit against the city was dismissed by a judge in July 2019.[51]
Opening sequence
The show's theme song is "Bad Boys", performed by reggae group Inner Circle, which was played over a montage of clips.
All episodes of Cops began with a disclaimer. Beginning with later episodes of season 2, the wording was:
Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. - Harry Newman provided by the following narration on the next episode.
The disclaimer in the first two seasons was slightly different: "Cops is filmed on location as it happens. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law." Burt Lancaster provided the following narration on the pilot episode: "Cops is about real people, and real crime. It was filmed entirely on location, with the men and women who work in law enforcement."
During at least the first season, episodes featured original scoring in a vein similar to the instrumental backing of the opening song. Some cues were short, others longer, usually over montages. Among the composers who scored episodes were Michael Lewis and Nathan Wang.[citation needed]
The Spike/Paramount Network version of the show added the Twitter handle and Facebook URL as its social media pages to the intro in 2013 until it was removed in 2020.
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Network | |||
| 1 | 15 | March 11, 1989 | June 17, 1989 | Fox | |
| 2 | 31 | September 23, 1989 | May 5, 1990 | ||
| 3 | 42 | September 15, 1990 | August 31, 1991 | ||
| 4 | 45 | August 10, 1991 | December 12, 1992 | ||
| 5 | 46 | August 15, 1992 | September 4, 1993 | ||
| 6 | 46 | August 7, 1993 | December 17, 1994 | ||
| 7 | 41 | May 14, 1994 | November 10, 1995 | ||
| 8 | 43 | February 25, 1995 | July 13, 1996 | ||
| 9 | 36 | August 31, 1996 | July 26, 1997 | ||
| 10 | 36 | September 6, 1997 | August 1, 1998 | ||
| 11 | 36 | September 12, 1998 | September 18, 1999 | ||
| 12 | 36 | September 11, 1999 | July 29, 2000 | ||
| 13 | 40 | May 20, 2000 | July 7, 2001 | ||
| 14 | 36 | September 1, 2001 | September 21, 2002 | ||
| 15 | 36 | May 4, 2002 | November 1, 2003 | ||
| 16 | 41 | April 26, 2003 | October 2, 2004 | ||
| 17 | 36 | May 15, 2004 | August 6, 2005 | ||
| 18 | 36 | September 10, 2005 | July 22, 2006 | ||
| 19 | 36 | September 9, 2006 | July 28, 2007 | ||
| 20 | 38 | September 8, 2007 | August 2, 2008 | ||
| 21 | 36 | September 7, 2008 | July 25, 2009 | ||
| 22 | 36 | September 12, 2009 | July 31, 2010 | ||
| 23 | 22 | September 11, 2010 | June 18, 2011 | ||
| 24 | 22 | September 10, 2011 | April 7, 2012 | ||
| 25 | 16 | December 15, 2012 | May 4, 2013 | ||
| 26 | 22 | September 14, 2013 | March 8, 2014 | Spike | |
| 27 | 33 | July 12, 2014 | May 9, 2015 | ||
| 28 | 33 | June 20, 2015 | April 30, 2016 | ||
| 29 | 33 | June 4, 2016 | April 22, 2017 | ||
| 30 | 33 | 22 | June 17, 2017 | November 13, 2017 | |
| 11 | January 22, 2018 | May 21, 2018 | Paramount Network | ||
| 31 | 33 | June 4, 2018 | May 20, 2019 | ||
| 32 | 33 | June 3, 2019 | May 11, 2020 | ||
| 33 | 33 | October 1, 2021 | July 8, 2022 | Fox Nation | |
| 34 | 17 | September 30, 2022 | March 31, 2023 | ||
| 35 | TBA | April 7, 2023 | March 30, 2024 | ||
Syndication
Domestic
In September 1992, reruns of Cops went into broadcast syndication, and like Fox's fellow series The Simpsons, it became a mainstay of the format, with its carriage being led by Fox Television Stations itself, be it Fox stations or those stations which belong to its sister network MyNetworkTV; it was also consistently included on the schedule of The CW's smaller-market chain of local cable channels and broadcast subchannels, The CW Plus. Seasons 7-24 would air on Court TV which eventually rebranded to TruTV in 2008, over the course of its syndicated run from 1998-2014 on the network, seasons 7-24 would be broadcast on the network, in 2014, it was announced the program would be pulled off the air by 2015, due to its syndicated contract expiring, the network decided not to renew the contract and by January, 2015, the network would stop airing the syndicated reruns. In the fall of 2013, it mainly began to air on Spike (now Paramount Network) on the cable side as part of that network's agreement to air new episodes, after several years on truTV. Older episodes were picked up by the now defunct Cloo in September 2014, after spending years on the now defunct G4, which was discontinued in December 2014. Local station syndication of the show was prevalent on most Fox stations and affiliates at the time, but as of 2015, older episodes were shifted into Cops Reloaded. WGN America also carried reruns of the regular version. At the start of 2016, the episodes in the now defunct Cloo/G4 package were moved into the Spike/Paramount Network syndicated package when the former G4/Cloo syndication agreement expired, giving that network the rights to the majority of the program. After Viacom's acquisition of Pluto TV in 2019, a 24/7 channel made up of episodes of the series directly programmed under license from Langley Productions was launched.[52]
Related to Paramount ending its carriage of Cops in June 2020, it has also relinquished its syndication rights; WGN America, which began to convert to a general news network as NewsNation under new ownership, also decided to stop carrying the show at the end of its existing carriage contract, which happened to terminate by coincidence on June 30, 2020.[53] Disney Media Distribution, which syndicates the FTSP-era episodes under its former name of 20th Television to local television stations, replaced the series for the remainder of the summer with the 2018–19 run of the defunct syndication version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on June 15 (of which an hour of episodes were distributed, as Cops was often paired with Live PD: Police Patrol, which was also pulled from syndication at the same time new episodes of that series were cancelled).[54] Reelz began to carry Reloaded episodes again on September 3, 2021. Reelz also began to carry older episodes of the regular version from seasons 8-17. Since May, 2023, Fox Business has also began carrying syndicated reruns of seasons 32, 33. Law & Crime network carries syndicated broadcasts of reloaded as of 2023.
International
Cops is broadcast in the UK on CBS Drama, CBS Reality and Fox. In Portugal the show is aired on Fox Crime, in Brazil on truTV, in Colombia on truTV, in Australia on Network Ten, 10 Bold (a sub-channel of Network Ten) and Crime + Investigation, in Japan on Fox Crime, in Philippines on C/S 9, in India on Star World and FOX Crime, in Norway on V4, in Sweden Reloaded airs on TV12 while original runs on TV6 and TV10, and in Denmark on Canal 9.
In Canada, both the original and Reloaded versions of the program aired on Action (now Adult Swim). BiteTV began airing the program in December 2014 (until its relaunch as Makeful in August 2015), while sibling channel RadX (which re-branded to BBC Earth in January 2017) began airing it on Monday, August 3, 2015.[55] Since 2022, Cops now airs on 24/7 channels by LG Channels and Samsung TV Plus.
Cops 2.0
An enhanced version of the program branded as Cops 2.0 with live web chats and program facts aired on G4 from May 2007 to 2009.[56]
Cops Reloaded
In January 2013, 20th Television announced that a new syndicated version titled Cops Reloaded would begin airing on CMT as well as local stations.[57] The new format features slightly edited segments of classic Cops episodes, allowing for four segments per each half-hour episode. This version contains all new graphics and soundbites during the opening theme song, and older segments are modified and framed to a sharpened widescreen image for the high-definition format if they were originated in standard-definition television.[58] From 2016-2018, Cops Reloaded aired on the CW network.[citation needed] On January 29, 2024, season 1 of Cops Reloaded was added to Tubi.[citation needed] In February, 2024, Season 1 of Cops Reloaded was also added to Peacock TV.
Home media
The program has had several "best-of" home videos, including Cops: In Hot Pursuit, Cops: Shots Fired, Cops: Bad Girls, Cops: Caught in the Act , and Cops:Too Hot For TV which included segments containing profanity and nudity that was edited out of the network version.[59] Cops:Too Hot For TV also had a deluxe edition which had a segment containing especially graphic content, including police finding a man who had hanged himself in his garage and the aftermaths of two different shootings. Before the aforementioned segment, there was an announcement by John Langley, stating that "This next segment isn't just too hot for TV, it's also probably too hot for this video. Once you've seen it, you'll know why."[60]
A Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition two-disc DVD with viewer favorites from each season, several behind the scenes features, and the original one-hour pilot was released in the United States and Canada on February 19, 2008.[61]