May 16, 2011

Fox has canceled America's Most Wanted in its current format as a regular series. The show will continue to live on, however, in the form of two-hour specials that the network will air once a quarter.

Known as one of the original "reality" shows, America's Most Wanted is the longest-running TV series in the history of the Fox network. It aired its first episode in 1988 and has since helped capture over 1100 fugitives worldwide.

In a conference call today, network president Kevin Reilly said that it no longer made financial sense to keep the show on the air. "We haven't made money on the show in quite awhile," he told reporters. "It wasn't particularly viable."

Another reason for the show's cancellation was to open up its Saturday time slot. The other major networks typically use that night for repeat episodes, and now Fox will do the same. "We're going to be in originals across our schedule," Reilly said. "We want to be able to play repeats to give the audience a chance to catch up and that's one of the few places we can do that."

(Source: Inside TV)