2019-08-26 Bloomberg Businessweek

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live elements that many viewers find irresistible.

“Crime is hot,” says Scott Robson, an analyst who

follows television for S&P Global Market Intelligence,

citing everything from crime-focused networks,

such as Investigation Discovery, to the surge in seri-

alized crime podcasts. Live PD added a new twist:

unpredictability. “With the live format,” Robson

says, “you never know what’s going to happen next.”

The show, now in its third season, is often the

No. 1 program on American cable TV on Friday and

Saturday nights. A&E is one of only two cable chan-

nels to show growth in 18-to-49-year-old viewers

since September 2018, along with TLC.

A&E, jointly owned by Walt Disney Co. and

Hearst Corp., runs six hours of new Live PD epi-

sodes a week. There are hours more of reruns and

seven spinoffs, including Live PD Presents: Women

on Patrol and Live Rescue, which focuses on fire-

fighters and other first responders. Top Dog, which

features police dogs competing on an obstacle

course, is set to make its debut in the fall.

In a way Live PD is a return to the network’s hey-

day six years ago when it thrived on red-state real-

ity shows such as Duck Dynasty and Dog the Bounty

Hunter. Programming at A&E—which had started

out showcasing fine arts such as opera and clas-

sical dance in the 1980s—drifted after those real-

ity hits ended, and the channel even toyed with

scripted dramas. In 2017, less than a year after Live

PD’s debut, A&E canceled all its scripted shows

and went all-in on reality. Says A&E President Paul

Buccieri: “We think we’ve struck a real opportunity

with live unscripted storytelling.”

Live PD has flown largely under the radar of

national media. That’s partly because police depart-

ments in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago hav-

en’t been interested in participating. “I think that

more people in other parts of the country are prob-

ably touched by law enforcement,” says the show’s

host, longtime network TV legal commentator Dan

Abrams. “They have friends, relatives that are in

some ways connected to it.”

Live PD is the creation of Big Fish Entertainment,

a production company acquired last year by Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Prior to Live PD, Big Fish was

best known for shows such as VH-1’s tattoo parlor

reality show Black Ink Crew. Company founder Dan

Cesareo says his team got the idea for Live PD after

reading an article about how police were stream-

ing arrests on Twitter. The nation had been roiled

by protests over police killings of unarmed suspects

such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Cesareo

pitched the program to police chiefs as a way for

the general public to see the whole story, not just

clips that end up on the evening news. He’s still

On a Saturday night in July in Salinas, Calif., offi-

cer Cameron Mitchell began pursuing a suspected

stolen car. As a couple million TV viewers watched

at home, Mitchell chased the vehicle over curbs

and through crowded intersections. He attempted

what’s known as a PIT maneuver, nosing his car

into the side of the fleeing vehicle to get the driver

to spin to a stop. But Mitchell instead lost control

and his squad car skidded frighteningly to a halt

on a median. In the end, the officer was fine and

the suspect gave himself up a few blocks later after

other Salinas police vehicles surrounded him.

It’s all in a typical night on Live PD, the hit show

that’s helped lift the fortunes of A&E Networks

Group and is showing at least one way TV compa-

nies can survive competition from streaming ser-

vices like Netflix. Continually switching between

cameras recording the real-time exploits of officers

in eight locations around the U.S., Live PD com-

bines a classic TV staple—the police show—with

How to Save

A Network

● A live reality-TV cop show gives cable channel

A&E a weapon to combat its streaming rivals

THE BOTTOM LINE Cathay Pacific, which gets half its revenue

from Greater China, has become ensnared in the politics of Hong

Kong’s protests. That could make the airline a target for both sides.

Cathay’s compromise could encourage Beijing

to further suppress free speech and expression

among Cathay staff—and possibly among workers

at other big Hong Kong companies. “This can be

really dangerous,” Choy says. “It can lead to even

stronger anti-Beijing sentiment in society and more

social unrest.”

Still, the public drubbing of Cathay was an

intentional show of government might. “The mes-

sage China wanted to send was that they have the

power and the will to do what they want to do,”

says Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultant

Endau Analytics. “Cathay is caught between a devil

and the deep blue sea. Like many others in Hong

Kong, the future of the airline is in China.” �Blake

Schmidt, Shirley Zhao, and Kit Chellel

◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek August 26, 2019

● Ratings of the top

five cable shows on

Aug. 10 among viewers

age 18-

0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

SpongeBob SquarePants,

Nickelodeon

NFL Total Access,

NFL Network

Dragon Ball Super,

Adult Swim

NFL preseason,

NFL Network

Live PD,

A&E