Cops

Now known as the original reality series, COPS hit the airwaves in early 1989, putting camera crews in police cars all across the United States. Adopting the Cinema Verité style of documentary filming, COPS uses no narration, depending completely on the police officers and the footage shot as it happens to tell the story. Each COPS camera crew consists of a camera operator and a sound mixer. The officer is mic'd with a wireless mic directly to the camera and the sound mixer captures the suspects, witnesses and other officers with a boom mic. Multiple crews can be stationed in one area as well as crews working different cities across the country at the same time. Still one of the most popular television shows on the air, COPS continually wins its 8pm time slot Saturday nights on FOX. COPS can also be seen in syndication on TruTV.