Television Reality Shows

Most Popular Crime-Based Reality Television Shows

In the United States, the two most popular crime-based reality television shows to date have been America's Most Wanted (which began airing in February 1988) and COPS (which began airing in March 1989), both broadcast on the Fox television network (although COPS has aired regularly in syndication on various other networks since the mid-1990s, as well).

America's Most Wanted profiles the most-wanted criminals in the United States—many of whom are wanted for offenses such as armed robbery, gang violence, murder, and rape—with the hope that one or more of the show's weekly viewers will recognize these individuals in their own communities and assist law enforcement officials in apprehending them. Within days of its initial broadcast, viewer tips led to the capture of one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 10 most wanted fugitives and, over the course of the program's first 2 decades, it had successfully assisted in the identification and capture of approximately 950 of the most dangerous U.S. fugitives. One of the show's hallmarks is its low-budget reenact-ments of the crimes that are featured each week. From its beginning, the show has been hosted by John Walsh, a man whose 6-year-old son was abducted and murdered in 1981 and who has since dedicated his life and career to enhancing the lives of crime victims by seeing that (at least some of) their victimizers are brought to justice. Despite all of his valiant efforts in this regard, after 2 decades on the air, Walsh and his wife had still not been able to achieve justice in their own son's case. In the early 1990s, America's Most Wanted also began profiling missing children and other missing individuals, and in late 2001 it endeavored, upon special request from President George W. Bush, to assist in America's War on Terror by airing an episode devoted to the most-wanted suspected al-Qaeda fugitives.

Perhaps best known for its appealing reggae-style theme song “Bad Boys,” COPS is a documentary-style reality television show whose cameras follow actual law enforcement officials on their everyday patrols and crime-filled adventures, with the goal of offering a voyeuristic perspective on contemporary criminals and police work. Viewers experience a sense of “being there” as the show's weekly episodes are created with regular use of shaky video footage and actual police dialogue; no traditional documentary-style commentary or narration is provided to formally guide the viewers or their impressions. Each half-hour installment typically features three different crime segments, which to date have been shot in more than 100 cities across the United States and in several cities abroad (including London and Hong Kong), with commercial breaks in between them. More than 650 episodes of this program had aired by the end of the 2005 to 2006 television season.

...