With second-season ratings rising and a spinoff on a sibling network slated to premiere June 4, A&E's Live PD continues to gain momentum as it delivers viewers across multiple airings and platforms.
On Friday and Saturday nights, typically the lowest-rated of the week for most networks, Live PD is drawing a crowd. The show, which launched its second season Oct. 6, 2017, averaged 1 million viewers 25-54 per episode for the first four months of 2018, A&E said. As of the April 28 episode, season two's ratings were up 43% over season one's, while ratings have climbed 140% overall since the series premiere on Oct. 28, 2016.
And like popular reality franchises including Real Housewives and Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the show got its first spinoff before the end of its sophomore campaign. Lifetime in April announced the 20-episode Live PD Presents: Women on Patrol, which will focus on female officers.
The "Live PD" studio team: Commentator Sgt. Sean "Sticks" Larkin, host Dan Abrams and co-host Tom Morris Jr.
A&E
The Dan Abrams-hosted Live PD is a successor to Cops for a new millennium, using Twitter to both capitalize on and drive fan engagement. With just over 245,000 followers (as of May 18), the show's @OfficialLivePD Twitter account averages more than 100,000 interactions during each week's live broadcasts and another 23,000 during the repeats, Elaine Frontain Bryant, A&E's head of programming, said.
"Ive never witnessed anything like it," Bryant said, adding that an avid virtual community has formed on Twitter around the hashtag #LivePDNation. "You never know whats going to happen on the show. That makes it really ripe for social conversation.
Live PD uses Twitter to sound the drumbeat about two hours prior to each episode, posting the line-up of the seven law enforcement agencies it's riding along with that night. The show has contracts with eight different counties across the country, and each has developed its own fanbase, which starts to chime in as soon as the line-up is posted.
An hour later, Abrams breaks in live on A&E to conduct the Live PD Roll Call, a run-down of each featured county's history on the show; simultaneously their recent clips appear on the Twitter feed, and the conversation continues to grow. Viewers start checking in with #9PMRoutine tweets confirming they've heeded law enforcement calls to be safely inside, doors locked, by 9 p.m. Showtime.
Once the live show gets started, everyone becomes a lawyer. Or a director. The fans are very opinionated, Bryant said. They maintain a running commentary on every aspect of the show, even tweeting when they think it's time to cut to new action.
The live viewer engagement has also influenced the outcome of the live onscreen action. During the April 14 episode, for example, viewers tweeted en masse when they saw a figure through a window of a house where Richland County, S.C., officers were investigating a reported break-in in progress.
The officers, who had originally concluded the house was empty, returned to the scene based on the tweets. Indeed, someone was inside: the housesitter.
Live PD also gives viewers official opportunities to be part of the action, via segments seeking leads that could close open cases. One of those segments, called "Missing," produced in partnership with The Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has generated tips that helped locate three kids, all found alive.
In late March, for example, the show helped find a young Texas girl, Mariah Martinez, who had been missing for almost two years. Authorities located her in New Mexico less than a week after the segment aired, Bryant said.
Viewers have taken their engagement offline as well. Following a January episode in which Slidell, La., police officers stopped a homeless man who had an attachment warrant against him for unpaid fines they let him off with a warning a call went out to #LivePDNation to help so the man wouldnt be arrested if he were stopped again.
The man owed $600 in fines from a previous trespassing misdemeanor, Bryant said. He didn't have the money to cover them, and two viewers paid them off.
Read More | New Orleans Times-Picayune: Twitter Users Answer Live PD Call [with video]
A&E sibling Lifetime is no doubt banking on those passionate fans to tune in to and engage with Women on Patrol when Live PD wraps season two in June. The spinoff won't be live, but will be hoping to generate the kind of live engagement Live PD has enjoyed. It has already begun building a Twitter presence around #WomenOnPatrol, and its @WomenOnPatrol handle garnered about 300 followers in its first two weeks.
Produced by Big Fish Entertainment, Women on Patrol will premiere June 4 and will feature female law enforcement officers (#LadyLEOs) from counties in Wyoming, North Carolina, Arizona and California.
MCN Original Video: One-on-One in 2 With Live PD's Dan Abrams
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
With second-season ratings rising and a spinoff on a sibling network slated to premiere June 4, A&E's Live PD continues to gain momentum as it delivers viewers across multiple airings and platforms.
