How Cop Shows Survived the Cancel Mob—and Won 2024 | 3.8.25
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Who is Dan Abrams and what are his contributions to cop shows?
Dan Abrams is one of the most prolific producers of law enforcement and legal content in the entertainment industry. His latest show On Patrol Live was the number one entertainment show of 2024 on Friday and Saturday nights. And it was just picked up for 90 more episodes.
In this episode, we speak to Abrams about cop shows and their lasting popularity despite efforts to cancel them after the death of George Floyd. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Saturday, March 8th, and this is a weekend edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now is Dan Abrams, the host and producer of On Patrol Live. Dan, thank you so much for joining us.
Why are cop shows still popular despite attempts to cancel them?
My pleasure. Nice to be here. You've done so much in the legal and law enforcement space. For those in our audience who may not be as familiar with your background as we are, can you give us a brief overview of your professional career?
Yeah. I mean, I am a lawyer by training and I use that pretty quickly to pivot into media where I ended up covering some of the highest profile criminal cases from the last, sad to say, because it exposes my age, the last three decades. I started really when I covered the OJ Simpson case, I was in court every day for that criminal trial and civil case. So that was certainly the the biggest case I'd covered up to that point. And then since then I've covered all the biggest trials around the country. And then recently I started a company called Law and Crime. We now have a 7 million YouTube subscribers and it's a massive legal and crime channel. But that background is, I think, why the producers came to me to host what is now On Patrol Live, which is a live police show where we follow police departments in real time. I think that they wanted someone who had a bit of a legal background to host the show.
What makes 'On Patrol Live' different from other police shows?
And this is a show that is different than any other police show out there because, you know, unlike let's say a cops where it's sort of a highlight reel of crazy moments, we're actually live in eight or nine departments at once. And so we'll go to a department and we'll see someone approaching a vehicle or responding to a call. And like the officers, the audience doesn't know what's gonna happen next. The officer doesn't know what's gonna happen next. The officer doesn't know who's in that car. The officer doesn't know exactly what's happening at a domestic call. And so the audience joins the officers in that experience. And I think that's part of what makes the show so compelling.
Yeah, and look, the numbers are really proving that it is a successful concept. Number one entertainment program on Friday and Saturday nights just got a 90-episode pickup. That's pretty much unheard of in the current TV landscape. What do you think makes this show so successful?
I think it's that people are interested in policing. I think there is an element of uncertainty throughout the show. And I also think that watching police engage with the community is something people have long been interested in. And I think that there's no other place where they can see it in real time. And as a result, I think that the concept The kinds of departments that we follow, we try to follow a mix of departments around the country and make this a really compelling show year after year.
When you say mix of departments, what do you mean? Like different sizes of departments, different areas of the country?
Correct. So it'll be both geographical diversity and also diversity of types of departments, the size of the department. We're in everything from Las Vegas, one of the top 10 biggest police departments in America, to Hazen, Arkansas, where we ride with the chief of the department and the two folks who work in his office. So it's a pretty diverse group of departments. And what's interesting is, of course, that the laws are different, sometimes state to state, too. particularly on kind of drug crimes. So, you know, that's part of what makes this interesting is we can compare what's happening around the country with different police departments.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who is Dan Abrams and what are his contributions to cop shows?
0:03–0:44
2
Why are cop shows still popular despite attempts to cancel them?
0:44–2:01
3
What makes 'On Patrol Live' different from other police shows?
2:01–5:23
4
How did the George Floyd incident affect cop shows?
5:23–8:50
5
What was Dan Abrams' reaction to the cancellation of Live PD?
8:50–14:25
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Morning Wire
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