A screenshot from Live PD. The Federalist.
A&E's primetime ratings have dropped by 49% since canceling the popular Live PD show due to demands of Black Lives Matter. The Federalist. After the death of George Floyd, BLM demanded the show be canceled as they claim the show portrays police in a positive light. Doing so has been a disaster for A&E as not only did they lose 49% of their viewership, they also lost in key demographics with 18-49 down 55% and 25-54 down 53%. In addition to Live PD, the network also canceled its sister shows, Live PD: Police Patrol and Live PD Presents: PD Cam, which accounted to 85% of the networks programming. A&E says they expected a ratings hit and are retooling their network but many Live PD fans are boycotting the network.
My Comment:
I know a lot of people are saying "go woke get broke" but this seems like a different saying is more applicable. Don't kill the golden goose. A&E had a show that basically printed money for them. The production costs were extremely low but millions of people were tuning in. To cancel the show makes about as much sense as strangling to death your golden goose because some moron told you to.
I was never a fan of Live PD, though I did like it's spiritual predecessor, COPS, which also got canceled. It seemed like a show that I would have liked though and if A&E had more of a backbone perhaps I would be watching it now. I do know a lot of people that loved the show, including my Mother who was fairly upset when it got canceled.
Canceling the show never made sense in the first place. One of the big things that Black Lives Matter and other police critics were demanding was police accountability and transparency. What better way to do that than have a film crew following the police around? The cops would be on their best behavior and anything bad they did would be broadcast across the country.
Of course that was never the goal of Black Lives Matter. Their true objection to the program is that it portrayed police as people, not slavering monsters that go around killing black people for fun. It showed just how difficult being a cop was and how bad the people that commit crime actually are. Given that BLM and the modern left worship criminals and hate cops, they couldn't have evidence that their beliefs are wrong reaching the rest of the public.
I never really understood why A&E did this. Their parent company, Disney, is woke but they are also in dire financial straits due to the Coronavirus shutting down their parks. I doubt that they actually believe in the BLM's goals but they did cave to them immediately.
The only thing I can think of was that Disney was terrified of a boycott or worse. BLM is a terror group after all and they can bring loads of people to your place and then destroy it if they don't get what they want. I am guessing they were afraid that BLM and/or Antifa would show up at one of their parks and destroy it. At least I hope so, the idea that Disney is so ideologically captured that they would cancel a show that prints money for them is a very disturbing one.
I am kind of surprised that nobody has stepped up to replace Live PD. It's formula is a very simple one as all you need is a camera crew and a cooperating police department to pull it off. Any network out there that is struggling could put up a replacement fairly quickly and then have a hit show on their hands. Even if they are worried about the controversy, they probably could wait until after the election as you know BLM will be an afterthought by that point.
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