The long-running true-crime reality show has begun filming again.
Long-running true-crime reality show Cops has begun filming again, after it was canceled in June amid worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd. However, the show will only air internationally.
A spokesperson for Langley Productions, Inc, which produces Cops, tells ET that production has been riding with the Spokane County Police Department in Washington since September and will likely continue into November. The current production on the show is intended only for international markets, and it is not known whether the production is currently shooting with, or intending to shoot with, other specific police departments.
In June, Paramount Network told ET in a statement that it didn't "have any current or future plans" for Cops to return. The show launched in 1989 on Fox, where it ran for 25 seasons. In 2013, SpikeTV (which would later be rebranded as Paramount Network) picked up the series after Fox canceled it.
Even before the recent protests, Cops had been under scrutiny for years. A 1994 study found that the show associated Black and brown people with violent crime much more frequently than it did with white people.
Meanwhile, in June, A&E Network also decided to cancel Live P.D. -- which followed police officers in real time as they patroled cities across the country -- amid protests against police brutality.
"This is a critical time in our nation's history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live P.D. 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," the network said in a statement to ET at the time. "And with that, we will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments."
Following the news, Live P.D. host Dan Abrams tweeted: "Shocked & beyond disappointed about this. To the loyal #LivePDNation please know I, we, did everything we could to fight for you, and for our continuing effort at transparency in policing. I was convinced the show would go on."
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