Reality series Live PD has become A&E's most-watched show since it launched in October of 2016. The show's premise of offering simultaneous live look-ins at law enforcement activity from up to eight police departments has created a ratings phenomena for the network and the show's producer, Big Fish.
But when Big Fish which had yet to produce a live program first knocked on A&E's door with the Live PD pitch, executives said it wasn't a sure bet the producer could pull off such a difficult feat, or that viewers would watch in big numbers.
Elaine Frontain Bryant, A&E executive VP and head of programming
When this idea came into the door, it was an unproducible show in my mind, but it would be so amazing if we could make it work, Elaine Frontain Bryant, A&E executive VP and head of programming, said.
Added Big Fish founder and president Dan Cesareo: I think there was an element of it that scared them, and I don't think they were sure if we were going to actually be able to pull it off, but they were willing to bet on us. We didn't have any live pedigree, but there was a level of comfort and a relationship there that they were willing to lean into.
Nearly 200 episodes later, Big Fish has delivered live content featuring police activity from around the country, and viewers have responded. Since its launch, Live PD has averaged nearly 2 million viewers (on a Nielsen live-plus-same day basis). Since its premiere in 2016 through the end of 2018, A&E's Live PD audience has grown by about 140% in total viewers on a live-plus-7 basis, per Nielsen.
Live PD host and TV newscaster Dan Abrams said Big Fish and Cesareo were able to successfully balance the technical challenges of switching from one live site to another while remaining sensitive to law enforcement's efforts to thwart crimes happening in real time.
Dan [Cesareo] is like a maestro in the control room he is dealing with eight live departments at once there is so much happening, and yet in the end it's a live production, Abrams said. In the news world, we're dealing with maybe two or three live events at once, if ever. This is eight, and Dan is orchestrating it in a way that it becomes storytelling. You get an insight as to what police officers are dealing with on a daily basis.
The series has generated several spinoffs, and although those shows don't air live, they do feature the Live PD signature. A&E's Live PD Presents: PD Cam, which shows ongoing crimes using officers' body cameras, dash cams and helicopter footage, debuted in July 2018 as A&E's top new series of the year. Sibling net Lifetime's Live PD Presents: Women on Patrol which follows female law enforcement officers from around the country has an order for an additional 20 episodes on top of the show's initial 20-episode run that began last June.
A third show, Live PD: Police Patrol, has for three seasons offered packaged content not included in the live show, according to A&E. (See Distribution.)
Live PD has paved a path for shows in a similar vein, including Discovery Channel's Border Patrol Live, which focuses its cameras on U.S.-Mexico border crossings. And Nat Geo Wild next month will launch Animal ER Live, capturing the heroics of veterinarians in animal hospitals in real time.
I believe that it's been one of the biggest innovations in the non-scripted genre in several years, Frontain Bryant said. Anecdotally, I hear that everyone is looking for their Live PD and people have already tried to rip it off.
Abrams cautioned networks trying to duplicate the success of Live PD that the task won't be easy.
I think you've seen that it's not so easy to just say, Hey, let's do a live unscripted TV show,' he said. Discovery discovered that with Border Live, which was not renewed after its initial six-episode run this past December.
Being live with police or firefighters or whomever you want to put there isn't going to necessarily work, Abrams said. Live PD is like an orchestra, and there are these many different pieces to it far more than just what people see, which is the final product.
The success of Live PD inspired Abrams to launch his new cable network Law&Crime, with live court proceedings during the day and legal analysis and opinion at night. One of the reasons I pursued Law&Crime network was seeing how the audience on Live PD was willing to wait and join for a sometimes long, not always action-packed journey, he said.
Reality series Live PD has become A&E's most-watched show since it launched in October of 2016. The show's premise of offering simultaneous live look-ins at law enforcement activity from up to eight police departments has created a ratings phenomena for the network and the show's producer, Big Fish.Subscribe for full article
Member Exclusive
Get Access to Our Exclusive Content
Learn MoreAlready subscribed? Log In
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
29/04/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/04/2024
Codemill aims to revolutionize media workflow efficiency at this years NAB Show by introducing Just-In-Time (JIT) playback technology in Accurate.Video Validate...
29/04/2024
April 29, 2024
-- TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New...
29/04/2024
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group (AMG) has partnered with LG Electronics to bring 223 Local Now FAST channels to LG's free streaming service, LG Channels, avai...
29/04/2024
OTTAWA Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization ...
29/04/2024
Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's end-to-end service offerings for...
29/04/2024
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its technology for dynamic autho...
29/04/2024
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that Rally Access Workstation, a fully managed solution for editing in...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, a premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality remote commenta...
29/04/2024
Glookast has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the only UK channel partner to represent their portfolio of ingest and workflow optimisation products. The agreement, sign...
29/04/2024
Clear-Com played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Leveraging its cutting-edge Eclipse HX Digital Matrix i...
29/04/2024
PlayBox Neo will promote its complete range of television channel management, graphic branding and playout solutions to EMEA region media content owners and bro...
29/04/2024
Lingo, RuPaul's word-twisting game show, returns for season two on CBS Friday, May 24. Two episodes air that night, and stream on Paramount Plus, too....
29/04/2024
ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are reportedly close to scoring television rights to the National Basketball Association, according to published reports....
29/04/2024
Judge Judy and Hot Bench, CBS Media Ventures' genre-leading court shows, have been renewed through the 2025-26 TV season in more than 95% of the country, Gr...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, an Irish-based premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality re...
29/04/2024
The awards celebrate the craft of behind-the-scenes TV talent and the best programmes of 2023
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 29, 2024
The awards cel...
29/04/2024
The team at Milk had to create and deliver the VFX and environment work for the royal residences featured in the drama from scratch
By Jenny Priestley
Publis...
29/04/2024
CEO Bob Bakish is expected to leave the company as early as today, with a new leadership committee likely to run the company on an interim basis
By Jenny Pries...
29/04/2024
Albena Ivanova, director, media and entertainment and strategic products at CHAOS talks to TVBEurope about her route into the industry
By TVBEurope Staff
Pub...
29/04/2024
The acquisition gives Grand Technix the opportunity to expand its footprint in the audio visual and broadcast technology sectors
By Jenny Priestley
Published...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Fanyana feels embarrassed about his sexual mishapDon't miss Monday, 29 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Sm...
29/04/2024
Talk about commitment. When startup SEA.AI, an NVIDIA Metropolis partner, set out to create a system that would use AI to scan the seas to enhance maritime safe...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
27/04/2024
Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...
27/04/2024
Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...
27/04/2024
CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....
27/04/2024
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...
27/04/2024
Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...
27/04/2024
Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...
27/04/2024
Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....
26/04/2024
Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...
26/04/2024
[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...
26/04/2024
Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...
Reality series Live PD has become A&E's most-watched show since it launched in October of 2016. The show's premise of offering simultaneous live look-ins at law enforcement activity from up to eight police departments has created a ratings phenomena for the network and the show's producer, Big Fish.
