What was once TV's longest-running reality TV series, Cops, has been picked up for a reboot at Fox News' new streaming platform called Fox Nation. The show first aired on Fox in 1989 and then moved to Spike TV, the Paramount network, in 2013. The series ran there up until June 2020. The rise of Black Lives Matter protests, which honored the unjust murder of George Floyd, led Paramount to pull Cops from the air, and A&E followed suit by pulling Live PD.
THR confirms that Fox Nation has picked up a reboot of the controversial Cops series. Cops will return to its parent company Fox on Fox Nation on October 1. Even though Fox Nation is a streaming platform, Cops will air weekly with new episodes every Friday. Cops joins a slew of other first responder shows featured on Fox Nation including 911: On Scene, When Seconds Count, Protect and Serve and Answer the Call. Fox News is truly leaning into all the first responder content by offering them a year of Fox Nation for free.
The Cops reboot was initially ordered by Paramount+ but they ended up dropping it. However, the series continued filming in Spokane, despite having no plans to air in the US. The show's producers expressed at the time that it was still set to air internationally and had contracts to fulfill. Now that the show is set to return at Fox Nation, there will surely be some mixed feelings. Some, likely those who already watch the platform, will be happy the show wasn't killed by "cancel culture." Others will be disappointed that a profession with such systemic racism will be glorified once again without any efforts of betterment set forth.
Source: THR