Cops

The precedent-setting reality series COPS carries on its fight against crime all over the country with a month's worth of "Coast to Coast" episodes Saturdays (8:00-8:30 PM and 8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) in February on FOX. In addition, it's all-COPS, all-night-long, during a special two-hour block of COPS Saturday Feb. 23 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

Single-handedly launching the reality-based entertainment genre, COPS has penetrated the American psyche unlike any other show in television history, earning its place in popular culture. The four-time Emmy Award-nominated series is in its 14th season on FOX and maintains bragging rights as one of the longest-running programs currently on primetime television.

COPS pioneered the use of the video-vérité technique, bringing the viewer directly into the action as it takes place, foregoing the use of scripts, actors or narrators. It was honored in 1993 by newspaper, television and radio critics throughout the country, who presented it with the first American Television Award in the category of Best Reality Show.

The series' cameras have captured barricaded suspects, spectacular car chases, undercover drug raids and busts, and a myriad of domestic disputes that offer vivid and often unsparing glimpses into the human condition. COPS has profiled law enforcement agencies in over 140 different cities in the United States and also has filmed in Hong Kong, London, Central and South America, Moscow and Leningrad. It is the first American television program allowed to follow the police in the former Soviet Union.

COPS is television's premiere reality series. The four-time Emmy Award-nominated series, which is poised to celebrate its 400th episode this spring, pioneered the use of the video-verite technique, bringing the viewer directly into the action as it takes place foregoing the use of scripts, actors or narrators. It was honored in 1993 by newspaper, television and radio critics throughout the country, who presented it with the first American Television Award in the category of Best Reality Show.

COPS premiered on the FOX network March 11, 1989, to critical acclaim and record ratings. Today the program continues to rank No. 1 in its time period among key adult demographics. The series' cameras have captured barricaded suspects, spectacular car chases, undercover drug raids and busts, and a myriad of domestic disputes that offer vivid and often unsparing glimpses into the human condition.

COPS has profiled law enforcement agencies in over 104 different cities in the United States and also has filmed in Hong Kong, London, Central and South America, Moscow and Leningrad. It is the first American television program allowed to follow the police in the former Soviet Union. In addition to its regular law enforcement beats in the coming season, COPS also will air episodes from such first-time cities as Atlanta, GA and Virginia Beach, VA.

Howard Rosenberg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The Los Angeles Times, has written of the series: "It's absolutely captivating, raw and unpredictable, a bubbling boiler of excitement....When it comes to entertainment...'Cops' crackles." John Langley is the executive producer of COPS for Barbour/Langley Productions, Inc. in association with FTSP. COPS is currently syndicated to more than 90 percent of the country.