FOX Doesn't Want as Much 'America's Most Wanted'

By PopEater Staff Posted May 16th 2011 04:20PM

Bad guys and girls, rejoice! FOX has slashed 'America's Most Wanted' from its regular lineup. The fugitive-hunting show, which is the network's longest running series, will transition into quarterly specials and host John Walsh will see his role evolve, entertainment president Kevin Reilly told reporters Monday.

Reilly made sure to praise Walsh, who has hosted 'AMH' throughout its 23 season, but said at the FOX Upfronts in New York City that the decision to cut back was purely financial.

"John Walsh has been a very important guy to the network for a long time. It's been an important show for us historically," Reilly said. "But it's no secret to John we have not made money on the show for quite a while. It was economically getting to the place where it was not realistically viable but we wanted to keep the franchise alive."

It may not be profitable, but 'AMH' has made a serious dent in the criminal population. As of April 7th, a total of 1,151 people have been reportedly captured because of it.

Reilly also based the decision on the network's need to free up airtime on Saturday nights to air repeats of other FOX shows.

"We're going to be in originals across our schedule," Reilly says. "We want to be able to play repeats to give the audience a chance to catch up and that's one of the few places we can do that."

Walsh could very well take the series to another network. Reilly said he was having a number of conversations with parent company News Corp.

"As to where that series could continue, you'd have to talk to him about what that ends up being," Reilly said.

Tags: Americas Most Wanted, John Walsh

Comments

(91)

Monday 16 May

By Sue Butler

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By all means let's get rid of a show that actually does some good and put on some foolish re-run or reality show or whatever. This does show much good sense or caring from the powers that be. This show has done more good than any show on TV. I for one will not be watching anymore. This is really a stupid decision.

By just saying

Yeah FOX..Go and support the criminals and idiots. AMW is one of the best shows on TV right now. I hope that cable TV will pick it up.

Tuesday 17 May

By rltballer

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

why is it stupid? if it wree such a good show then ppl would have watched. yes it may have done good, but if its not making money why would you expect Fox to keep it? if you are going to be mad at anyone be mad at the population for not sitting on the edge of the sofa to watch this show on saturday night.

By HG in MN

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Though my attitude about it is not as hostile sounding as his/or hers, rltballer is right. Unfortunately, television is not a public service, (unless you're talking about PBS, which will likely lose it's government funding very soon.) Television IS AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM, much like billboards. The entertainment provided is whatever will bring the most viewers, i.e. targets of the advertiser. AND, those viewers must also be the ones that will purchase the advertiser's wares, so demographics are important. Oh, and you TIVO and HULU and DVR users...what you watch doesn't count because you're either fast-forwarding over the ads, or if watching on the internet you're watching THEIR ads. Blaming the newtworks for being greedy doesn't hold water...if you've ever owned a business, you know it won't stay around long if you don't make money. So it's no one's fault but our own.

By cac006006

I have always admired John Walsh for hosting America's Most Wanted . I am amazed by the strength that he and his wife have always shown after the horrible death of their son.

By longrde

this show wasn't about making money, it was about catching crooks and predators, this show lead to the recovery of many children and arrest of more than 1k fugitives, maybe we need to have a letter writing campaign again to FOX to keep this show on the air instead of repeats of some axed show write in america and let FOX know how you felt about this and urge them to keep the show running !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By treetwister2

I can NOT believe that FOX , of all media outlets, are going after that almighty DOLLAR!! Now, FOX will fall into the LAME STREAM MEDIA CATEGORY just like ALL of the rest. SAD,...SAD,..SAD!

I really was still hoping and praying that FOX was DIFFERENT!
I WAS WRONG! SOROS MUST HAVE BOUGHT OUT FOX AS WELL!!

O'Reilly got turned, they got rid of Beck and now Walsh,....the ONLY two men on T.V. that had ANY MORALITY, INTEGRITY AND TRUTH about them!

I think I'll just start listening to my music and STOP watching T.V. altogether b/c all they have on anyway is SEX, LIES, STUPID REALITY SHOWS AND COPY-CAT SHOWS. ALL b/c they have lost ANY AND ALL creativity anyway.

SO MUCH FOR TRUTH!

By Debora

Here we go again getting rid of a show thats not full of sexual crap, seems like thats the only shows that last not the entertaining ones or ones that actually have helped others, sick, sick society!

By gobluespartyon

All of your claims which are lies Debora and your prude as well sex sells and sexual stuff on TV is no worse than what it was 10 or 20 years ago and that is a fact.

By Adele

To "Gobluespartyon"--What are you, 13??? ""The sex on tv is no different than 10 or 20 years ago""?? That's a ridiculous statement. The sex and the ugly violence has gotten so out of hand that it's stomach turning. I don't know where you were 20 years ago, but you certainly weren't watching television programs!!

By bigtimeliberal

im sure they will replace it another really funny show about 2 queers and how everyone in society accepts them as normal.

By shirleyA

I'm sorry to hear this, no wonder this past Saturday
it did not air and wondered what happened? I put on
a DVD. I will not watch it's replacement. Also the
acting in the reenactments is brilliant.

By tana green

America's Wost Wanted = AMH? It appears twice in the article, am I missing something? Don't watch the show.

By MarkH

You're right, I didn't catch that first read through LOL

By osufan1103

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I noticed that also....someone should proofread before they release any story with improper abbreviations. America's Most Wanted = AMW...not AMH!

By trina

this is bs how stupid is fox for doing this. This show help so many people get the help they need to catch people who have lost love ones. keep this show because that they case I stop watching anything that fox.

It's dumb to just stop watching a network just because they cancelled a show.

By hislonv

There was a time when a broadcaster had to air public service programming as part of their FCC license requirements. AMW would certainly qualify at a network level which would mean that they would be doing a public service for the entire group of affiliates, not just a single local station.
The almight dollar seems to be louder than being a public service. Sex, sin and skin seem to be the formula for most of the Fox prime time programming these days. Too bad they can't give an hour to the public good.
Thanks John Walsh for sending the bad guy to jail over 1000 times. I hope you can land somewhere else and be as successful.

By Chuck

I haven't watched the show in years, partly because I got tired of it, and partly because Walsh just got on my nerves.

By BB

You and me both,Chuck.

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