COPS
- 1989–
- 30 min
- Crime
- Reality
- Running
- FOX
- Fox Nation
Camera crews ride along with police officers and sheriff's deputies on patrol, on calls for service and on stings, with no narrator, script, music or added sound effects. The officers' own commentary and the people they encounter carry each episode, which usually runs three self-contained segments that often end in an arrest.
Where to watch
COPS isn’t streaming, or for rent or sale, on any service we track here right now.
COPS isn’t streaming, or for rent or sale, on any service we track here right now.
COPS isn’t streaming, or for rent or sale, on any service we track here right now.
COPS isn’t streaming, or for rent or sale, on any service we track here right now.
Checked 25 Oct 2026. Services change their catalogues often; the service’s own page has the final word.
Our take
Camera crews ride along with police officers and sheriff's deputies on patrol, on calls for service and on stings, with no narrator, script, music or added sound effects. The officers' own commentary and the people they encounter carry each episode, which usually runs three self-contained segments that often end in an arrest.
Why watch Cops is among the longest-running series in American television and a template for the fly-on-the-wall reality format that followed. It is worth watching as television history as much as entertainment, including the debate it has drawn: Paramount Network pulled it in June 2020 amid protests after the murder of George Floyd. It suits viewers interested in documentary form and the history of reality TV.
What to know
John Langley and Malcolm Barbour created the show and spent years trying to sell it. The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike changed that: the young Fox network needed low-cost programming without union writers, and Cops premiered on 11 March 1989 after a seven-week trial on six Fox stations. Langley Productions produces it.
Fox aired it for 25 seasons, and by 2011 it had become the network’s longest-running show, a record The Simpsons later passed. When Fox dropped it in 2013, Spike, later Paramount Network, picked it up; the 1,000th episode aired as a live special hosted by Terry Crews on 21 August 2017. Paramount Network cancelled it in June 2020, but production continued for international partners, resuming in Spokane County, Washington, that October. Fox Nation picked it up in September 2021, and the 38th season premiered in summer 2026. Over the years crews have filmed in about 140 American cities, as well as in Hong Kong, London and the former Soviet Union.
Seasons & episodes
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- Season 4
- Season 5
- Season 6
- Season 7
- Season 8
- Season 9
- Season 10
- Season 11
- Season 12
- Season 13
- Season 14
- Season 15
- Season 16
- Season 17
- Season 18
- Season 19
- Season 20
- Season 21
- Season 22
- Season 23
- Season 24
- Season 25
- Season 26
- Season 27
- Season 28
- Season 29
- Season 30
- Season 31
- Season 32
- Season 33
- Season 34
- Season 35
- Season 36
- Season 37
- Season 38
Cast & crew
More like this
More from FOX
Quick answers
- Where can I watch COPS?
- In the US: ViX Gratis, Fox Nation, Pluto TV and Prime Video (buy).
- What is COPS about?
- Camera crews ride along with police officers and sheriff's deputies on patrol, on calls for service and on stings, with no narrator, script, music or added sound effects. The officers' own commentary and the people they encounter carry each episode, which usually runs three self-contained segments that often end in an arrest.
- Who is in the cast of COPS?
- COPS stars Harry Newman as Narrator.
- When did COPS start?
- COPS premiered on 11 March 1989 and is still running, with 38 seasons so far.
Before you go