What year did the reality show Cops first air?

Cops first aired in 1989. The American reality documentary premiered on Fox on March 11, 1989, during the network’s early years, and followed police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they handled patrols, calls for service, arrests, and special operations.

The series was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour. A Writers Guild of America strike helped create an opening for the low-cost, unscripted program because television networks needed shows that did not rely on scripted writers. Fox initially tested the series on several owned-and-operated stations before its network premiere.

Cops became known for its handheld, on-location style and for the recurring use of Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” theme. It is sometimes confused with later police-reality programs such as Live PD, but Cops predates them by decades. Another historical wrinkle is that Fox canceled the program in 2013; it later moved to Spike, then Paramount Network, and eventually Fox Nation. Those later moves do not change its original launch year.