America's Most Wanted cancelled but John Walsh isn't done

[simmytbone]

Hey guys,

"America's Most Wanted" is axed after 23 years, but host John Walsh is not done yet

Here's the story:


Fox cuts down 'Wanted,' but John Walsh isn't done
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Mon May 16, 4:49 PM PDT

You didn't have to watch "America's Most Wanted" to be grateful it's there. For 23 years it has resided on Fox, rallying its audience into a nationwide crime watch from which everyone benefited.

The viewership was not insignificant: 5 million viewers, on average, this season.

But other numbers were more impressive. Like the 1,151-and-counting worldwide captures it claimed, a public blessing for which the show, and the community it roused, could take proud credit.

No wonder if the public was shaken by the news on Monday that Fox has canceled "AMW."

Too expensive, Fox entertainment Kevin Reilly explained when making the announcement. Instead of "AMW," Fox will air weekly repeats of its prime-time entertainment series. He said there would be just four, two-hour "AMW" specials next season.

John Walsh had gotten the bad news on Sunday.

Walsh, of course, is the host of "AMW" and its driving force, a man who led a crime-busting crusade in the aftermath of the abduction and murder of his 6-year-old son Adam in 1981.

"I was quite surprised," he said by phone Monday afternoon from backstage at the Fox's presentation for advertisers in Manhattan. He said he told Reilly. "We performed hard for you and we had a good year. We caught more guys than we've ever caught."

But that wasn't the metric that mattered to the network.

Set aside for a moment the public good "AMW" has provided. It's also been a remarkable TV institution. It premiered in April 1988 on the fledgling Fox network during a season when other freshman Fox shows included such long-forgotten fare as "The New Adventures of Beans Baxter" and "Second Chance."

It was billed as "a weekly nationwide criminal manhunt." Walsh, a former hotel executive with no TV experience, was its host, with a simple message for the law-abiding public that he deputized to help flush out the bad guys: It's us or them.

"AMW" caught on, where most of Fox's lineup failed. (In July 1989, it became the first-ever Fox program to rank first in its time slot.)

It's been a fixture on the network ever since, and, since 1994, planted at 9 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays. Oh, except for a couple of months in 1996 after Fox canceled it the first time.

"The public went bananas," Walsh recalled. So did government and police officials, who regarded the show as an invaluable law-enforcement resource. The network swiftly reconsidered, and "AMW" carried on with its good work.

"It's a show that seems like it was always there," said Brad Adgate, an analyst for the firm Horizon Media. And innovative: "It harnessed the wisdom of crowds long before social media."

"AMW" had another thing going for it. No matter how aggressively the show led a fight to drain the nation's swampland of depravity, there was no danger it would ever run dry. "AMW" has content guaranteed to keep going forever.

Anyone other than Walsh might have received the news that "AMW" was being cut down with a measure of relief. After a quarter-century immersed in the dark side of humanity while keeping up a punishing schedule, he might reasonably welcome a respite now, at age 65.

But he's not about to slow down.

"We're getting better at it," he said of the collective effort he and his show display. "I got better at it, smarter at it, tougher."

Walsh said there will be a couple more episodes to do for the network.

Meanwhile, he'll be talking to Twentieth Television, the network's studio arm, about possible new outlets for the show.

"I think this show could go into syndication big-time," he said. "And I'll do those specials, because I love the network. Who else would give the father of a murdered child a chance to host a revolutionary reality show?"

Then he had to get off the phone. He was needed onstage at the presentation.

"Television is a business and I understand that," Walsh said in parting. "But you never know: We came back once, stronger than ever. ... I'm not ready to throw in the towel."

credit: tv.yahoo.com and Associated Press

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...FOX tried to cancel "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" in the fall of 1996, as they tried programming two sitcoms from 9-10pm(et) on Saturdays- the final season of "MARRIED WITH CHILDREN" and a forgettable sitcom, "LOVE AND MARRIAGE". Well, the outcry from viewers, as well as protests from several state governors and various police forces, was enough for the network to apologize and quickly throw "AMW" back on the air, less than two months after they'd virtually written it off their schedule. Now, FOX is scuttling it again for an even flimsier reason: they claim "not enough viewers" are watching [and the repeats they're using to replace it with, will lure more of them?? ]. What they really want is more ad revenue than "AMW" is giving them now. Repeats of their most popular shows in that time period are the kind they want their more affluent advertisers to support, pure and simple.

This is the kind of bad judgement (and poor strategy) that Kevin Reilly demonstrated when he was scheduling NBC's prime-time line-up about six years ago. He wanted more "edgier" shows: two of them, "THE BOOK OF DANIEL", which was roasted by religious groups everywhere, and "THE BLACK DONNELLYS", a downbeat crime drama that wouldn't have gained even three million viewers even if it had been relegated to cable {where it belonged}, didn't do ANYTHING to help the network increase viewers and ad revenue, with the result that Reilly was out after two years.

Don't count "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" out yet. It will return as a weekly series, whether FOX wants it or not....

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

...FOX tried to cancel "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" in the fall of 1996, as they tried programming two sitcoms from 9-10pm(et) on Saturdays- the final season of "MARRIED WITH CHILDREN" and a forgettable sitcom, "LOVE AND MARRIAGE". Well, the outcry from viewers, as well as protests from several state governors and various police forces, was enough for the network to apologize and quickly throw "AMW" back on the air, less than two months after they'd virtually written it off their schedule. Now, FOX is scuttling it again for an even flimsier reason: they claim "not enough viewers" are watching [and the repeats they're using to replace it with, will lure more of them?? ]. What they really want is more ad revenue than "AMW" is giving them now. Repeats of their most popular shows in that time period are the kind they want their more affluent advertisers to support, pure and simple.

This is the kind of bad judgement (and poor strategy) that Kevin Reilly demonstrated when he was scheduling NBC's prime-time line-up about six years ago. He wanted more "edgier" shows: two of them, "THE BOOK OF DANIEL", which was roasted by religious groups everywhere, and "THE BLACK DONNELLYS", a downbeat crime drama that wouldn't have gained even three million viewers even if it had been relegated to cable {where it belonged}, didn't do ANYTHING to help the network increase viewers and ad revenue, with the result that Reilly was out after two years.

Don't count "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" out yet. It will return as a weekly series, whether FOX wants it or not....

I certainly hope so, if it happened once it can happen again.

I have a little something to confess.....

I stopped watching AMW a little over four years ago. I'm for the show, don't get me wrong, but I got fed up with all the Advertisments for Prescription Drugs that dealt with various "Bodily Functions" that they aired with other Commercials. (Which I timed to be TWENTY Minutes per Hour! ).

Shortly after I timed the show I spotted one of those Ads on a Children's Show, and I gave up on BOTH Broadcast AND Cable TV, switching to Commercial-Free DVDs.

TV continues to get worse with every passing year, but as you see from my Signature, I probably have enough Programming to last the remainder of my life.

[DSfan]

Originally Posted by Regulus

I certainly hope so, if it happened once it can happen again.

I have a little something to confess.....

I stopped watching AMW a little over four years ago. I'm for the show, don't get me wrong, but I got fed up with all the Advertisments for Prescription Drugs that dealt with various "Bodily Functions" that they aired with other Commercials. (Which I timed to be TWENTY Minutes per Hour! ).

Shortly after I timed the show I spotted one of those Ads on a Children's Show, and I gave up on BOTH Broadcast AND Cable TV, switching to Commercial-Free DVDs.

TV continues to get worse with every passing year, but as you see from my Signature, I probably have enough Programming to last the remainder of my life.

Prescription drugs are allowed to advertise on TV. It's not inappropriate or offensive I don't think really. But I can also understand your point of view.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by DSfan

Prescription drugs are allowed to advertise on TV. It's not inappropriate or offensive I don't think really. But I can also understand your point of view.

The first Prescription Drug Commercials weren't bad, mainly ones dealing with certain aches and pains, but then things took a turn for the worse. Ads began appearing for ones dealing with what I'll call "Personal" Bodily Functions. IMHO quite embarrassing. Then in 2004, during the Super Bowl Three new Commercials made their Debut, all dealing with Sexual Problems (I'm sure these ads produced a number of complaints that may have numbered those for what happened to that Singer during the Halftime Show!) . It wasn't long before those Commercials "Migrated" to the rest of TV. I began questioning WHY was I PAYING for the "Privilege" of watching TV whth these kinds of Ads on them. In the fall of 2006 the "Last Straw" occured. Every Friday, I attend a Bible Study that my Church does. These are held at people's houses. Since many members have children, a room is set aside with some kind of activity to entertain them. On this day the room set aside for them had a TV set to a Children's Channel. The Owner of the House made some homemade Lemonaide and asked me to serve the kids. As I entered the room where the kids were, I saw the Program they were watching was on a Commercial Break, and the Ad was for a Toy (No problem here, after all it was[I a kid's show). The next ad featured a Reptile hawking his Insurance (A liottle annoying, but these guys advertise everywhere). Then the next ad came on, it was one of those "ED PILL" Commercials! I couldn't believe it! This was during A CHILDREN'S SHOW ! I hollered and the Host came running. Seeing what was on, she IMMEDIATLY disconnected the Cable, then ran into town to get a Movie for them to watch. The Rest of the group wondered what was going on, so I told them. (They were all waiting for the Pizza to be delivered for our Supper) Several of us called both the Cable Company and the Network to complain, and were given a runaround (The Network denied having that Pharmaceutical Company as a Sponsor (They may have been right, as many Advertisers will often purchase Ads on "Local" Spots to circomvent any Objections the Networks may have to them.) and the Cable Company said they had no control over what was being Advertised. The following weekend I flrw to Pennsylvania to attend an Amusement Park Club Convention. When I returned I had over $300.00 in unused Vacation Money. I BEELINED to a Shopping Center and "Raided" several stores DVD Bargain Bins, picking up over 600 Hours of TV shows (a dozen TV Series) and over 20 Movies. By year's end this number had more than doubled. I figured it would take me more than a year to watch all of these shows during Prime Time (7:00 to 11:00 PM). I no longer had any need for Cable, so the next morning I gathered up all the Cable Equipment and returned it to the Cable Company. From that point on I have used the funds formerly used to pay my Subscription Fee to purchase more DVDs. My Signature bears witness to how well I have done since then.

[howierules86]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

...FOX tried to cancel "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" in the fall of 1996, as they tried programming two sitcoms from 9-10pm(et) on Saturdays- the final season of "MARRIED WITH CHILDREN" and a forgettable sitcom, "LOVE AND MARRIAGE". Well, the outcry from viewers, as well as protests from several state governors and various police forces, was enough for the network to apologize and quickly throw "AMW" back on the air, less than two months after they'd virtually written it off their schedule. Now, FOX is scuttling it again for an even flimsier reason: they claim "not enough viewers" are watching [and the repeats they're using to replace it with, will lure more of them?? ]. What they really want is more ad revenue than "AMW" is giving them now. Repeats of their most popular shows in that time period are the kind they want their more affluent advertisers to support, pure and simple.

You are correct on the fact that AMW was originally cancelled by FOX in September 1996. Then, just two months later, prompted by a massive letter-writing campaign to save the show and weak ratings for the two sitcoms that replaced it, FOX immediately brought AMW back to Saturday nights (this was when the "America Fights Back" subtitle started). I can only speculate if this type of scenario will happen again eventually.

[Reverend Jim]

[Dork]

They should NEVER EVER cancel the show!!!!

[Big3sCompanyFan]

Originally Posted by Dork

They should NEVER EVER cancel the show!!!!

I totally agree! Walsh should take this into syndication like on FX! I'm sure he can find somewhere to air it and they can still have 4 specials a year on Fox.