George Floyd death: Paramount pulls the plug on TV show Cops after 33 seasons amid protests against police violence

After 33 seasons on the air, Cops has been dropped by the Paramount Network as protests against police proliferate around the world.

“Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a spokesperson Paramount Network said in a statement.

The show had been pulled temporarily from the air in late May, when protests aimed at police over the death of George Floyd began to gain momentum. That move was made permanent Tuesday.

It’s not clear whether the company that makes the show, Langley Productions, would try to find a new home for it. A voicemail at a company phone number was not accepting messages.

The reality show, with its widely known reggae theme song ‘Bad Boys,’ allowed viewers to ride along with police officers on patrol in various cities.

It ran on the Fox network for 25 years until 2013, when Viacom-owned Spike TV picked it up. The show remained on the air after Spike was re-branded as the Paramount Network in 2018.

The news comes merely days after HBO Max’s Looney Tunes Cartoons decided to do away with guns and rifles to depict the characters Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam. However, neither Peter Browngardt, the showrunner and executive producer on the series, nor WarnerMedia, HBO Max’s parent company, stated the exact reason for the decision to drop guns from the new show.

Earlier, major Hollywood studios including Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, Amazon and The Academy of Motion Pictures have issued statements on social media in support of the Black community and  Black Lives Matter movement .

Paramount Picture s took to Twitter to condemn the act of racism and senseless violence against the Black community.

“Black lives matter. Black culture matters. Black communities matter. We stand in solidarity with our black colleagues, creators, partners and audiences and condemn all acts of racism, discrimination, and senseless acts of violence,” the post read.

(With inputs from The Associated Press)