“Live PD,” the hit A&E police ride-along show that was canceled in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, has been revived under the new name “On Patrol: Live.” But the debut episode, which aired July 22 on Reelz, was hindered with technical difficulties which lead to a 70-minute delay.
When viewers tuned into the show, which was set to premiere at 9 pm EST, they were met with a black screen for several minutes. Commercials then started looping for Reelz programming, including an upcoming documentary about the band Kiss, followed by two nearly full reruns of “Jail: Las Vegas.”
16 minutes into the broadcast, Reelz tweeted from their official account, writing, “Sorry folks. We are aware there are current technical problems. We are working on it as fast as we can.” They messaged again nearly an hour later, writing, “We know everyone has been looking forward to the premiere of On Patrol: Live and we apologize for the technical difficulties. We are still working on it and hope to bring the show to you tonight.”
Meanwhile, host and executive producer Dan Abrams, who was still shooting the show as if it was being broadcast, tweeted at 9:23, “We are shooting live but Based on the #OPNation technical issues I’m told the show will air from the beginning. Believe me we are frustrated. Sorry!” Once the technical issues were sorted out, he tweeted again, writing, “Ok so bad news we had nothing on air for 75 minutes or so, the good news is I’m told the show will be played in its entirety and commercial free! Thank you for staying with us. Now let’s keep #OPLive #OnPatrolLive trending (but not for the technical disaster!).”
On July 20, Abrams tweeted, “Had a great technical rehearsal tonight for the new show @OfficialOPLive. We are ready to go live on Friday @ReelzChannel.”
The show started a little after 10:11 EST, when Reelz began running the “On Patrol: Live” episode from the beginning without commercials.
A new episode of “On Patrol: Live” is scheduled to run July 23.
