Bill Kurtis Returns to "Cold Case Files", Reclaims Throne as Voice of True Crime
by Mekeisha Madden Toby
August 20, 2021


Bill Kurtis can’t go on vacation without strangers recognizing him and inquiring about old "Cold Case Files" episodes that still haunt them.

“They walk up to me and say, ‘Whatever happened to that 18-year-old whose body was found?’ and I swear to God, I can’t remember all 137 episodes,” Kurtis confesses to TVLine. “So I nod my head and say, ‘That’s Episode 79. That was chilling,’ just to keep things moving. And it works most of the time. That’s my life.”




Perhaps this level of recognition is one of the reasons Kurtis is returning this week as the host and voice of A&E’s "Cold Case Files" after a 15-year hiatus. The true-crime series will air Fridays at 9/8c and continue to highlight the 1 percent of the nation’s 100,000 unsolved cases that eventually get solved.

(The show had a standalone season on Netflix in 2017 with actor Danny Glover hosting and narrating that incarnation.)

https://tvline.com/2021/08/20/bill-kurtis-cold-case-files-return-season-premiere-interview/

I watched it and wasn't really a fan. It's great having Kurtis back but they seem to have stripped away all of the moody atmosphere (especially the new terrible music) that made the original so great. It feels as generic as the new UM, and if you replaced the narration it could have doubled as one of the relaunched American Justice episodes.