Table of Contents
Introduction: The Unraveling of a Ratings Juggernaut
In the landscape of early 2020 cable television, few programs commanded the audience or influence of A&E’s Live PD.
It was not merely a successful show; it was a cultural phenomenon and a network-defining asset.
Broadcasting for three hours on both Friday and Saturday nights, Live PD consistently ranked as the No. 1 show on basic cable in its primetime slot, a ratings juggernaut that had only grown in popularity during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic when other live programming, such as professional sports, had ceased.1
The A&E network’s confidence in its flagship program was unequivocal.
In May 2020, just one month before the show’s abrupt demise, the network announced a renewal for an additional 160 episodes, a massive commitment signaling a long and profitable future.2
Yet, on June 10, 2020, this juggernaut came to a stunning and permanent halt.
A&E announced it was ceasing production and canceling Live PD entirely.1
The decision to jettison its most popular and lucrative property was not the result of a single event but rather a “perfect storm” where a profound national crisis of conscience collided with a specific, damning, and previously buried controversy.
This confluence of forces exposed the long-standing ethical vulnerabilities at the heart of the reality policing genre, making the show’s continuation untenable.
The cancellation of Live PD can be understood as the result of three powerful, converging forces.
The first was the unprecedented wave of social and political pressure generated by the global protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.1
This national reckoning created an environment of intense scrutiny for any media perceived as glorifying law enforcement.
The second, and most acute, factor was the explosive revelation of
Live PD‘s direct involvement in the March 2019 in-custody death of Javier Ambler, a 40-year-old Black man, and the subsequent destruction of the video footage captured by the show’s own crew.1
This story, breaking at the height of the protests, provided a concrete and tragic example of the very issues demonstrators were decrying.
The third, underlying force was the years of mounting criticism that had long characterized
Live PD and its predecessor, Cops, as “copaganda”—a form of entertainment that valorized police, distorted the realities of the criminal justice system, and profited from the exploitation of vulnerable people at their lowest moments.9
The speed with which these forces converged to topple the program was remarkable, occurring over a period of just 16 days.
| Date | Event |
| May 25, 2020 | George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.1 |
| May 26, 2020 | Protests against police brutality begin in Minneapolis and rapidly spread nationwide.13 |
| Early June 2020 | A&E temporarily pulls Live PD from its broadcast schedule “out of respect” for the Floyd family and others.1 |
| June 9, 2020 | Paramount Network announces the permanent cancellation of Cops, a similar reality policing show, after 33 seasons.1 |
| June 9, 2020 | The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV publish investigative reports detailing the 2019 death of Javier Ambler and revealing that Live PD had filmed the incident and later destroyed the footage.1 |
| June 9, 2020 | Amid the temporary hiatus, host Dan Abrams assures fans on Twitter, “To all of you asking whether #LivePD coming back… The answer is yes”.2 |
| June 10, 2020 | A&E reverses course and announces it has ceased production and canceled Live PD permanently.1 |
This timeline illustrates a rapid and irreversible cascade of events.
It shows how the generalized pressure of a national movement was suddenly focused by a specific, indefensible controversy, creating a crisis that no amount of ratings success could withstand.
Abrams’ confident declaration on June 9th, made just before the full impact of the Ambler story was felt, highlights the dramatic power of the revelations that would force the network’s hand less than 24 hours later.
This report will provide a comprehensive analysis of each of these converging forces, deconstructing the anatomy of a cancellation that marked a pivotal moment in the relationship between media, law enforcement, and the American public.
Section 1: The National Reckoning – A Cultural Tsunami
The immediate context for the cancellation of Live PD was the seismic shift in American public consciousness following the murder of George Floyd.
On May 25, 2020, Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, for nearly nine minutes, killing him during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill.13
The incident, captured on bystander video that quickly went viral, was a brutal and undeniable display of police violence that catalyzed a national and global wave of protest.13
The Eruption of Protest
Beginning in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, demonstrations erupted with an intensity and scale not seen in decades.13
Within days, protests had spread to every major U.S. city and eventually to all 50 states and over 60 countries.13
Polls conducted in the summer of 2020 estimated that between 15 and 26 million people in the United States participated in demonstrations, making them the largest protest movement in the country’s history.13
This was not a fleeting news cycle; it was a sustained, months-long movement that brought the issues of police brutality, racial injustice, and systemic racism to the absolute forefront of the national conversation.16
A Shift in Corporate Consciousness
This groundswell of public outrage created what A&E itself would later describe as “a critical time in our nation’s history”.1
The protests forced a wide range of American institutions, particularly major corporations, to publicly address issues of race and justice.
Statements of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement became ubiquitous, and companies faced immense pressure to demonstrate that their actions aligned with their words.12
This cultural moment precipitated a broad re-evaluation of how police and the justice system were portrayed in popular media.9
The protests did not simply generate public pressure; they fundamentally altered the calculus of corporate brand management.
Before May 2020, the primary risk associated with a television show was financial—the risk of low ratings and lost advertising revenue.
In the post-Floyd environment, however, the risk became reputational, ethical, and even existential.
For a media conglomerate like A&E, which is co-owned by the Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications, the public perception of its brand is a paramount concern.22
The network had just renewed
Live PD for 160 episodes, a clear signal that, from a purely financial perspective, the show was a low-risk, high-reward asset.2
However, as the protests intensified and civil rights organizations like Color of Change began to mount targeted campaigns, the equation changed.12
The cancellation of the long-running show
Cops by the Paramount Network on June 9th served as a powerful industry precedent, signaling a new intolerance for the genre.1
For A&E and its parent companies, continuing to air their flagship police reality show was no longer a simple programming decision.
It became a public statement on their corporate values at a moment of profound national crisis.
The potential brand damage of being perceived as tone-deaf, or worse, as a purveyor of content that normalized the very police behavior being protested, became a far greater liability than the certain financial loss of canceling a hit show.
The “Copaganda” Scrutiny
In this new, highly scrutinized environment, the term “copaganda”—a portmanteau of “cop” and “propaganda”—entered the mainstream lexicon.9
The term refers to media that uncritically glorifies law enforcement, presents a one-sided and heroic narrative of police work, and reinforces harmful stereotypes about crime and minority communities.11
Activists and media critics identified reality shows like
Cops and Live PD as quintessential examples of the genre, arguing that they functioned as a public relations arm for law enforcement, normalized excessive force, and dehumanized the individuals—often people of color or those in crisis—who were filmed.11
This critique created a deeply hostile climate for a genre that had, for decades, been a reliable and profitable television staple.24
A&E’s initial response was cautious.
In early June, the network announced it was temporarily pulling new episodes of Live PD from its schedule.
The stated reason was “out of respect for the families of George Floyd and others who have lost their lives” and “in consideration for the safety of all involved”.1
This was intended as a temporary pause, a gesture of sensitivity in a volatile moment.
However, the rapidly escalating cultural pressure, combined with the bombshell story about to break from Texas, would soon make this temporary suspension a permanent cancellation.
The cultural tsunami unleashed by the protests had irrevocably changed the landscape, and
Live PD was directly in its path.
Section 2: The Ghost of Williamson County – The Javier Ambler Case
While the nationwide protests created the conditions for Live PD‘s downfall, the specific catalyst—the event that made the show’s position indefensible—was the public revelation of its role in the 2019 death of Javier Ambler.
More than a year after Ambler died in the custody of Williamson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies, the story of his final moments, and the fact that a Live PD crew had filmed it all, emerged at the most volatile possible moment.
The Incident: A Deadly Chase Over Headlights
On the night of March 28, 2019, Javier Ambler, a 40-year-old Black man, a U.S. Postal Service worker, and a father of two sons, was driving home from a poker game.1
Deputies from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office attempted to pull him over for a minor traffic violation: failing to dim his headlights for oncoming traffic.1
For reasons that remain unclear—though his family’s lawyer and former partner have suggested he may have been in medical distress and trying to get to a hospital—Ambler did not immediately stop, leading to a 22-minute police pursuit.8
The chase, which involved several minor collisions, ended when Ambler’s vehicle crashed into a tree in a residential North Austin neighborhood.8
The Arrest and Death
What followed was a scene of escalating violence captured on the deputies’ body cameras.
Ambler, who was unarmed, exited his crashed SUV with his hands raised.8
He immediately and repeatedly tried to communicate his dire medical condition to the officers, stating that he had congestive heart failure and pleading that he could not breathe.1
Body camera footage shows him telling officers, “I have congestive heart failure,” and “I can’t breathe”.4
Despite these pleas and his statement “I am not resisting,” deputies pinned Ambler to the ground and deployed their Tasers on him multiple times—reports indicate three to four shocks.1
As he was being restrained and tased, Ambler’s cries grew more desperate, with his final words being “please save me”.8
Shortly after being placed in handcuffs, he became motionless and unresponsive.8
He was later pronounced dead.
An autopsy subsequently ruled his death a homicide, caused by congestive heart failure and hypertensive cardiovascular disease “in combination with excessive forcible restraint”.8
The Live PD Crew’s Presence
Crucially, a camera crew from Live PD was on a ride-along with the Williamson County deputies, including Deputy Jason James Johnson, one of the primary officers involved.1
The crew filmed the entire sequence of events, from the pursuit to Ambler’s death.25
Because the show was on a production hiatus at the time, the footage was not being broadcast live but was recorded for potential use in future segments.1
The presence of the television crew immediately raised profound ethical questions.
Prosecutors from Travis County, who would later investigate the death, stated that the presence of the Live PD cameras made the deputies’ actions “particularly troubling”.6
This statement gave official credence to a long-standing criticism of the reality policing genre: that the presence of cameras might incentivize officers to engage in more dramatic or aggressive behavior for the sake of making “entertaining television”.9
The fact that a 22-minute chase and a fatal use of force stemmed from a simple headlight violation lent significant weight to this concern.
Later investigations by news organizations would reveal that the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office’s use of force had nearly doubled in the year after it began its partnership with
Live PD.9
The Story Breaks
For more than a year, Javier Ambler’s death remained largely unknown to the public.
However, investigative journalists at the Austin American-Statesman and local television station KVUE-TV pursued the story, filing records requests for months to obtain the police body camera footage.8
On June 9, 2020—at the absolute peak of the George Floyd protests—they published their explosive findings, including the harrowing body camera Video.1
The timing could not have been more potent.
The Ambler case became a powerful, real-world embodiment of the abstract criticisms that had been leveled against “copaganda” for years.
It was no longer a theoretical debate about media representation; it was a specific, tragic death in which the show’s presence was a documented and complicating factor.
The case provided a concrete focal point for activists and critics, transforming the conversation from one about the portrayal of policing to one about the show’s direct role in influencing police actions, with fatal consequences.
The ghost of Williamson County had emerged, and it would prove to be the final undoing of Live PD.
Section 3: The Missing Tape – Evidence, Ethics, and Obstruction
The revelation of Javier Ambler’s death was a devastating blow to Live PD, but it was the subsequent disclosure about the fate of the show’s own footage that proved fatal.
The admission that the video evidence of Ambler’s final moments had been destroyed created a firestorm of controversy, raising accusations of evidence tampering and fatally undermining the show’s entire public premise of providing transparency in policing.
The Revelation of Destruction
In the immediate aftermath of the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV reports on June 9, 2020, A&E and representatives for Live PD were forced to respond to a critical question: what happened to the video their crew had filmed? Their answer was stunning: the footage had been destroyed and could no longer be provided to investigators or the public.1
The Justification from Abrams and A&E
Faced with intense public backlash, host Dan Abrams and the network scrambled to explain the decision.
They presented a two-part justification rooted in long-standing show policy.
First, they cited a policy of not retaining unaired footage for more than approximately 30 days, particularly after being informed that an initial law enforcement investigation had been concluded.1
Second, they articulated the rationale behind this policy: it was designed to maintain journalistic independence and prevent the show from becoming an “arm of law enforcement” or a “video repository” that could be used by either prosecutors or defense attorneys in legal proceedings.1
Abrams argued that the show’s purpose was to “chronicle what they do,” not to serve as an evidence locker for the state.1
As part of this defense, Abrams and A&E repeatedly and forcefully claimed that no law enforcement agency had ever formally requested the footage.
They stated that neither the Austin Police Department (which arrived on scene and whose body cameras provided the video that eventually broke the story), the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office (whose deputies were the subjects of the investigation), nor the Travis County District Attorney’s office had ever asked Live PD or its producers for their video of the incident.1
The Counter-Narrative and Legal Fallout
This explanation was met with widespread skepticism and outrage.
The destruction of the footage, regardless of the stated policy, was seen by many as an act of spoliation of evidence.
The rationale that the footage was destroyed to avoid becoming an “arm of law enforcement” was seen as a deeply cynical paradox.
At the very moment the show’s “journalistic” record was most needed to hold law enforcement accountable for a death in custody, the evidence was conveniently gone.
This action demonstrated to a watching public that the show’s commitment to protecting itself and its symbiotic relationship with its police partners superseded any genuine commitment to transparency.
The core value proposition of the show had been exposed as a marketing slogan, not an operating principle.
The legal and political consequences were swift and severe:
- Accusations of Evidence Tampering: Prosecutors investigating Ambler’s death immediately raised concerns about evidence tampering.26 Shawn Dick, a Texas district attorney, publicly stated that the footage was “evidence” and “should not have been destroyed”.10
- Criminal Indictments: The controversy escalated into a criminal investigation. In September 2020, Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and his chief deputy were indicted on felony evidence tampering charges, with prosecutors alleging they had participated in the destruction of the Live PD video.2 Subsequently, the two deputies who restrained Ambler, James Johnson and Zachary Camden, were indicted on manslaughter charges.2
- “Javier Ambler’s Law”: The Texas state legislature responded directly to the controversy by passing House Bill 54, known as “Javier Ambler’s Law.” Signed by the governor in May 2021, the law makes it illegal for law enforcement agencies in Texas to authorize a person to accompany and film an officer for the purpose of producing a reality television program.9 This was a direct legislative rebuke of the entire practice that had led to the Ambler tragedy and the subsequent destruction of evidence.
In the face of this fallout, even Dan Abrams conceded the policy had been a grave error.
He stated publicly that, in retrospect, he wished the tape had been preserved and that the policy should have had an exception for a situation involving a fatality.29
“Given what happened,” he said, “I wish the tape had been preserved”.31
But this admission came too late.
The damage was done.
The missing tape had become the central, indefensible fact that made the continuation of
Live PD impossible in the cultural climate of June 2020.
Section 4: The “Copaganda” Machine – A Critique of Reality Policing
The crises of June 2020—the George Floyd protests and the Javier Ambler controversy—did not occur in a vacuum.
They landed upon a television genre that was already burdened by years of serious ethical criticism.
Live PD, like Cops before it, had long been accused of being a “copaganda” machine, a form of media that presented a fundamentally distorted and harmful view of the American criminal justice system.
Understanding these pre-existing critiques is essential to grasping why the show was so vulnerable when the final storm hit.
Defining and Deconstructing “Copaganda”
“Copaganda” is defined as media that promotes a pro-police narrative, typically by portraying officers as infallible heroes, valorizing their actions, and dehumanizing the individuals they encounter.9
Civil rights groups and media critics argue that this genre plays a significant role in “normalizing injustice” by encouraging the public to accept over-policing, excessive force, and the rejection of meaningful reform.12
Live PD‘s entire brand was built on the premise of “transparency,” a claim that critics argued was a deceptive marketing ploy masking a deeply biased production model.
The show’s claim to transparency was undermined by several key factors:
- The Illusion of “Live”: Despite its name, Live PD was not purely live television. The broadcast operated on a delay of anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, allowing producers to censor inappropriate content.2 Furthermore, the live segments were frequently interspersed with pre-taped and edited packages, which critics argued were curated for maximum entertainment value, not documentary accuracy.9
- The Police Veto: The most significant breach of transparency was a practice uncovered by a 2020 investigation from The Marshall Project. Through public records requests, the investigation revealed that Live PD‘s production company, Big Fish Entertainment, routinely allowed participating police departments to review footage and request that certain segments be cut before they aired.9 Records showed that at least 13 agencies had made such requests to keep unflattering encounters off the air. These included incidents of clear potential misconduct, such as a deputy in Spokane County, Washington, forcefully grabbing a domestic violence victim, and an officer in Warwick, Rhode Island, appearing to strike a fleeing suspect with his car door.10 This practice of giving police editorial control represents a fundamental conflict of interest, transforming the show from a supposed watchdog into a partner in managing the police department’s public image.
The Impact on Policing and Communities
The ethical problems with the show were not limited to its on-screen portrayal; evidence suggests the very presence of the cameras had a tangible, negative impact on policing practices and the communities being filmed.
- Incentivizing Aggression: The concern that officers might “perform” for the cameras was borne out by data. An investigation by the Austin American-Statesman found that use of force by Williamson County deputies nearly doubled in the year after the department partnered with Live PD. The analysis also showed that deputies used significantly more force during the specific weeks that Live PD camera crews were filming with them.9 A broader academic study found that departments that filmed with reality television shows saw a 20% increase in arrests for low-level, victimless crimes, suggesting that the need to generate content for the show was influencing policing priorities.34
- Exploitation of Vulnerable People: A core ethical criticism of the genre is its practice of filming people during what are often the worst and most vulnerable moments of their lives—moments involving mental health crises, substance abuse, domestic disputes, and extreme poverty—and broadcasting these personal tragedies as mass entertainment.10 Critics argued that the consent obtained from individuals in these situations was often not meaningful or informed.24
- Distorting Public Perception: By focusing on dramatic pursuits and successful arrests, these shows create a warped perception of both crime and policing. Research has shown that reality policing programs present a world with four times more violent crime and ten times more prostitution arrests than exist in reality, while dramatically overstating the rate at which crimes are solved.24 This can cultivate an unwarranted fear of crime and an overly positive view of police effectiveness, making the public more resistant to calls for reform.
Ultimately, the show’s business model was predicated on a symbiotic but ethically compromised relationship.
Live PD needed access to police departments to create its product.
In return for that access, the departments received a powerful public relations and recruitment tool 41, along with a degree of editorial control over their portrayal.10
This mutual dependence created an inherent conflict of interest.
A media entity cannot simultaneously be a transparent, objective chronicler of an institution and also its partner in public relations.
The “copaganda” critique, therefore, was not merely about the show’s content; it was an indictment of an operational structure that was fundamentally built on a foundation of non-transparency.
This long-standing vulnerability left
Live PD with no ethical high ground to stand on when the crises of 2020 arrived.
Section 5: The Corporate Response – Pressure, Precedent, and Public Relations
The decision by A&E to cancel its highest-rated show was not made in a vacuum.
It was a corporate calculation shaped by intense external pressure, a critical industry precedent, and a strategic need to manage public relations in a moment of national upheaval.
An analysis of the network’s actions and statements reveals a clear pattern of risk management in the face of an overwhelming cultural shift.
The Precedent of Cops
A pivotal event in the timeline was the cancellation of Cops by the Paramount Network on June 9, 2020.1
As the originator of the reality policing genre,
Cops had been on the air for 33 seasons and had established the template that Live PD would later modernize and perfect.
Its cancellation was a landmark moment that sent a shockwave through the television industry.
According to reporting in Variety, A&E executives felt they had little choice but to follow Paramount’s lead.2
Even though they internally believed
Live PD was a different and more nuanced program—a “documentary-style show” as opposed to pure entertainment—the public perception lumped the two shows together.2
The fall of
Cops created an industry-wide precedent and left A&E isolated as the sole prominent purveyor of the now-toxic genre.
Continuing to air Live PD after its predecessor had been deemed culturally unacceptable would have invited even greater scrutiny and criticism.
The Role of Civil Rights Activism
The cancellation was also a direct result of a targeted and effective campaign by the civil rights organization Color of Change.
For years, Color of Change had been working to hold Hollywood accountable for what it argued were harmful and inaccurate portrayals of the criminal justice system.12
The organization had a track record of success, having successfully lobbied for Fox to cancel the original run of
Cops in 2013.12
In June 2020, the group seized the moment.
Immediately after securing the cancellation of Cops from Paramount, the Color of Change team turned its full attention to A&E.
They reached out directly to executives at the network and its parent companies, Hearst and Disney, demanding that they “stand with millions of Americans concerned about police propaganda” and permanently cancel Live PD.12
They explicitly rejected the idea of a temporary pause, insisting on a full termination of the program.
When A&E announced the cancellation on June 10, Color of Change immediately issued a press release titled, “Color of Change Wins Campaign to Get Live PD Canceled on A&E,” claiming a clear victory and framing the network’s decision as a direct response to their advocacy.12
A&E’s Official Statement
The network’s public-facing response was carefully calibrated to the national mood.
The official statement announcing the cancellation was a masterclass in corporate communication during a crisis.
It read: “This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live PD.
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.
And with that, we will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments”.1
This statement achieved several strategic goals.
It acknowledged the gravity of the historical moment, aligning the network with the national conversation.
It used the language of reflection and dialogue (“determine if there is a clear pathway,” “meeting with community and civil rights leaders”), positioning A&E as a responsible actor seeking solutions.
It avoided directly mentioning the Javier Ambler controversy, instead attributing the decision to the broader cultural environment.
It was the language of de-escalation, designed to mitigate brand damage and navigate a perilous public relations landscape.
The sequence of events points to a decision driven by pragmatic risk management rather than a sudden moral awakening.
Live PD was a massive financial asset that the network had just re-committed to with a 160-episode order.2
Businesses do not voluntarily discard such valuable properties.
However, the combination of the
Cops cancellation, the direct and public pressure from an effective activist group like Color of Change, and the emergence of the indefensible Javier Ambler story created a convergence of risks that became too great to bear.
As one observer noted, with A&E’s ownership by Disney and Hearst, “not cancelling it would have hurt them on many other fronts.
Make no mistake that this was a business decision”.22
A&E was caught between its loyal, vocal fanbase—the self-proclaimed “#LivePDNation”—and a powerful national movement.
It chose the path of least reputational damage for its corporate parents.
Section 6: The Aftermath – Viewership, Legacy, and Rebirth
The cancellation of Live PD sent immediate and significant shockwaves through A&E and the broader media landscape.
The aftermath was characterized by a steep financial price for the network, a continuing debate over the show’s legacy, and, eventually, a nearly identical revival that called into question whether any substantive lessons had been learned.
The Financial Hit for A&E
The decision to cancel Live PD had a severe and immediate negative impact on A&E’s viewership, confirming the show’s status as the network’s financial anchor.
In the period from June 11 to July 19, 2020, following the cancellation, A&E’s average primetime viewership plummeted to 498,000 viewers, a staggering 49% drop compared to the same period in the previous year.2
The decline was even steeper among the key advertising demographic of adults aged 25-54, which fell by 53%.36
Before the cancellation, A&E had been one of the few cable networks experiencing year-over-year growth.36
This precipitous decline underscored the immense financial sacrifice the network made in its decision and the commercial power of the program it had abandoned.
The Revival: On Patrol: Live
Despite the controversy and the network’s stated commitment to finding a “clear pathway” forward with community leaders, the creative team behind Live PD was actively working to bring the show back.
Two years after its cancellation, in June 2022, it was announced that a revived version of the show would premiere on the cable network Reelz under the new name On Patrol: Live.2
The new program was, for all intents and purposes, a direct continuation of the old one.
The similarities were so extensive that media outlets universally described it as a revival or return of Live PD.2
This led A&E Networks to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against Reelz and the show’s production company, Big Fish Entertainment, in August 2022, alleging that
On Patrol: Live was a “blatant rip-off” of its intellectual property.2
A federal judge, in denying a motion to dismiss the suit, found the two shows to be “virtually indistinguishable” and “substantially similar”.30
The revival was a commercial success, quickly becoming the most popular show on Reelz and propelling the smaller network into the top 25 cable rankings for the first time.30
Substantive Changes or Superficial Tweaks?
The producers of On Patrol: Live claimed that the new iteration would address some of the criticisms of the original.
Host and executive producer Dan Abrams stated that the new show would be more focused on transparency and that “more exceptions” would be made to the controversial 30-day footage destruction policy, acknowledging the previous rules were too strict.39
The show also incorporated new public service segments, such as partnering with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to feature cases of missing children.39
However, critics argued that these changes were superficial and failed to address the fundamental ethical flaws of the format.9
Crucially, the new show’s contract with police departments still gives them the right to review footage and request edits for a variety of reasons, including to protect officer safety or departmental operations—a loophole that critics contend allows for the same kind of police-vetted content as the original.34
The core “copaganda” critique—that the show presents a distorted view of policing for entertainment—remained firmly in place.
The following table provides a direct comparison of the two shows, illustrating the overwhelming continuity between them.
| Attribute | Live PD | On Patrol: Live |
| Network | A&E | Reelz |
| Primary Host | Dan Abrams | Dan Abrams |
| Production Company | Big Fish Entertainment | Big Fish Entertainment (via Half Moon Pictures) |
| Core Format | Live police ride-alongs with in-studio analysis | Live police ride-alongs with in-studio analysis |
| Footage Policy | Destroyed after ~30 days, no exceptions cited | “More exceptions” for retention beyond 30 days |
| Police Editorial Review | Allowed (per The Marshall Project investigation) | Allowed (per Reelz website) |
| Key Controversy | Destruction of Javier Ambler footage; “copaganda” critiques | A&E copyright infringement lawsuit |
This comparative analysis makes it clear that the revival was not a reimagining of the format but a relocation of it.
The core elements—the host, the producers, the format, and the ethically problematic practice of allowing police review—all remained intact.
The primary controversy surrounding the show simply shifted from one of public accountability to one of corporate litigation, while the product being delivered to viewers remained fundamentally unchanged.
Conclusion: A Canceled Show, A Continuing Conversation
The cancellation of Live PD on June 10, 2020, was not a simple decision but a complex and uniquely resonant event in American popular culture.
It stands as a case study in the power of a national movement to reshape corporate behavior, the immense risk of a media product failing to live up to its own marketing, and the volatile intersection of entertainment, ethics, and law enforcement.
The show’s demise was the direct result of a perfect storm: the societal upheaval following the murder of George Floyd created a zero-tolerance environment for perceived “copaganda”; the long-buried story of Javier Ambler’s death provided a specific, tragic, and undeniable example of the genre’s worst-case potential; and the subsequent revelation that Live PD had destroyed its own footage of the incident fatally shattered its core claim of “transparency.”
Pressured by the precedent set by the cancellation of Cops and a direct, effective campaign by the civil rights group Color of Change, A&E and its parent companies made a pragmatic, if reluctant, business decision.
Faced with the choice between a lucrative but now reputationally toxic asset and the imperative to perform corporate responsibility in a moment of national crisis, they chose the latter.
The immediate 49% drop in A&E’s viewership confirmed the immense financial cost of this decision and the show’s foundational importance to the network.
However, the story did not end there.
The revival of the program two years later as On Patrol: Live—a show that is, by judicial and popular consensus, a near-identical copy of the original—raises profound questions about the permanence of the changes wrought in 2020.
While a single show on a specific network could be canceled, the underlying market forces and cultural appetite for this brand of reality policing proved resilient.
The revival suggests that the window for “unthinkable progress” that opened in the summer of 2020 may have been more transient than it appeared.
The saga of Live PD leaves behind an enduring and unresolved legacy.
It forced a necessary, if uncomfortable, conversation about the ethical boundaries of turning the often-brutal realities of law enforcement into a commercial product.
It exposed the illusion of “transparency” when that transparency is curated, edited, and subject to the approval of the very institutions it claims to be observing.
The show was canceled, but the fundamental questions it raised about media responsibility, the nature of reality television, and the portrayal of justice in America persist.
As long as there is a profitable market for this content, the conversation about its impact and its ethics is far from over.
Works cited
- Live PD Canceled at A&E – TV Guide, accessed August 7, 2025, https://www.tvguide.com/news/live-pd-canceled-at-ae/
- Live PD – Wikipedia, accessed August 7, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_PD
- A&E ratings drop nearly 50 percent following ‘Live PD’ cancellation – Fox News, accessed August 7, 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ae-ratings-drop-50-percent-live-pd-cancellation
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