June 11 (UPI) — “Live PD,” a live A&E reality series that followed police officers on patrols, has been canceled amid ongoing protests over George Floyd’s death.
NBC News confirmed Wednesday that A&E officially canceled the show after initially pulling episodes that were to air over the past weekend.
A&E and MGM’s Big Fish Entertainment, which produces the series, made the decision jointly in the wake of Floyd’s death. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis, Minn., while being restrained by a police officer who knelt on his neck.
“This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on ‘Live PD,'” A&E said in a statement to Deadline.
“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,” the network added.
“Live PD” host Dan Abrams reacted to the cancellation Wednesday on Twitter.
“Shocked & beyond disappointed about this. To the loyal #LivePDNation please know I, we, did everything we could to fight for you, and for our continuing effort at transparency in policing,” he wrote. “I was convinced the show would go on.”
Abrams had said Tuesday that the show was coming back.
Prior to Floyd’s death, A&E had ordered 160 new episodes of “Live PD.”
Other networks have revised their programming in the wake of Floyd’s death, including Paramount Network, which announced Tuesday it is cancelling its long-running series “Cops.”
