‘COPS’ Returning to Television After Being Cancelled During Black Lives Matter Riots Over George Floyd

 

The long-running television show COPS is returning to television, two years after it was canceled during the Black Lives Matter riots over George Floyd.

The popular show debuted in March of 1989 and ran until June 9, 2020, when Paramount pulled it off the air in support of Black Lives Matter. 

Originally, the show was on Fox and will now be airing on the FOX Nation streaming platform. At the time that it was canceled, the show was airing on Spike TV, which became Paramount Network in 2018, according to a report from Mediaite.

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

At the same time that COPS was yanked by Paramount, a similar show called “Live PD” was pulled by A&E “out of respect for the families of George Floyd and others who have lost their lives.”

When Live PD was canceled it was the number one series on cable on Friday and Saturday nights. 

Social justice warriors had been railing against the show since it began.

“The dominant image is hammered home again and again: the overwhelmingly white troops of police are the good guys; the bad guys are overwhelmingly black,” the New York Times wrote in 1989. “Little is said about the ultimate sources of the drugs, and nothing is mentioned about Florida’s periodic scandals in which the police themselves are found to be trafficking in drugs.”

Jason Klarman, president of the streaming service, said in a press release that “FOX Nation is continuing to expand its library of the iconic series ‘COPS,’ with all new, exclusive episodes set to roll out beginning Friday, September 30th, announced Jason Klarman, president of the streaming service.”

“It has been nearly one year since we greenlit COPS and the reaction has been positively overwhelming,” Klarman said. “Our subscribers continue to flock to the series and we’re excited to provide our engaged audience with more of the exclusive content they have come to rely on from FOX Nation.”