The First 48 is apparently quietly coming to an end. Tulsa Homicide Detective Jason White let the crushing news slip at the end of his podcast Into the Fire: True Crime Stories, telling the audience (and former First 48 mainstay Scott Sayers) that “Tomorrow is the last day that they’re gonna be filming anything on The First 48. That’s it. It’s over… They’re pulling all the cameras out of every city tomorrow.”

His reveal was reinforced by Tulsa’s News on 6, which confirmed that ITV production crews left the city earlier this week. While the latter report says that Tulsa Police officials were told the move is “a pause, not a cancellation,” there’s a fair amount of reason to doubt that statement. A&E executives also confirmed that the network is not ordering new episodes, though they have plenty still to air. But beyond the logistics, there’s nothing else like The First 48, and there never will be again.

THE FIRST 48 LEAVING TULSA IS THE END OF AN ERA

Per the News on 6 article, A&E reportedly has enough episodes of The First 48 in post-production to last three years. So from a financial point of view, it’s understandable that they’d see this as a way they can save a not unsubstantial amount of money, rather than continue to create a backlog.

But in fairness, it’s hard to say just how long those episodes will stretch out either. How many might never get aired because of legal or production concerns? One of the many good things about The First 48 is the due diligence A&E and ITV take with the content. And how many seasons are in those three years, given that new episodes don’t always air consistently, so there’s an ongoing discrepancy as to what season the show is actually on? It’s impossible to know how the math will truly line up.

What we do know is that the Tulsa Police Department signed a five-year contract extension in 2025—and then this happened, suggesting that the TV landscape looks a lot different now than it did then. Even if A&E’s estimate is right, three years from now that network might be in a completely different place with its programming. Networks evolve all the time; some folks may not remember that A&E is short for “Arts & Entertainment.” Oxygen wasn’t always a true crime channel; it began as a women’s entertainment channel, similar to Lifetime. So when that surplus of The First 48 episodes runs out, will A&E still have a place for new ones?

Furthermore, there are contract complications that now exist. Another major reason the show has lasted this long is the production quality that ITV has maintained down to the smallest detail. All those field team members will now have to move on to other jobs, and if ITV can’t bring them back, or A&E can’t bring ITV back, then this absolutely will not be the same show. First 48 viewers already have proof of that with how Dion Graham not narrating After the First 48 totally changed the tone of that series. This week’s news is like breaking up a hit band.

On a bigger level, the new deal with Tulsa came with an exit clause, which presumably A&E has now exercised. It’s fair to assume the contracts with Gwinnett County and North Charleston have similar language. Using the exit clauses would probably mean A&E would have to negotiate new contracts, and there is zero guarantee that would be possible. In fact, it’s more likely to be harder. One only needs to look at what happened in Mobile to know how quickly things can change between The First 48 and a city.

And there’s no bigger city on The First 48 than Tulsa. Tulsa Homicide has been the backbone of this show for years, sometimes carrying the series on its back, particularly after the loss of Mobile. For the camera crew to leave Tulsa isn’t just a production shift; to go back to the music analogy, it’s akin to a band firing its lead singer. Not only is Tulsa the longest-tenured and most recognizable department, they’ve also been the most welcoming to the show and its fans. Police departments just don’t have the kind of open arms that Tulsa has welcomed everyone with. They’re one of a kind, and so to let that go is something that has to be taken incredibly seriously.

This is bigger than a pause; this is something that is going to have lasting effects. So it is an ending even if that ending doesn’t last forever. And hopefully it doesn’t, because the true crime genre without The First 48 doesn’t look that great.

THE FIRST 48’S IMPACT ON TRUE CRIME CAN’T BE REPLICATED

All of this feels so massive because The First 48 was really the first great true crime show (sorry, COPS) and over 20 years later, there still isn’t anything better. A&E deserves to be commended for standing behind the show as long as they have, in a TV landscape that gets more and more transitory every year. For any series to make it past two decades and however many seasons is a rare accomplishment, and that’s only one thing the show has to be proud of.

Let’s start with the cut and dried stuff: The First 48 has generated so much content for A&E. There have been five spinoffs or other offshoots of the show over the years, most notably After the First 48 and The First 48 Presents Homicide Squad Atlanta. At this exact moment, there are three FAST streaming channels that almost exclusively show The First 48 reruns. There’s a lot of talk today about TV franchises and how they’re good for business; this series undoubtedly created a brand a long time ago.

It’s a brand that others have tried and failed to duplicate since. It’s not enough to put a camera in front of some homicide detectives, or to have a camera follow around some police officers. One needs only to take a look at Investigation Discovery’s Real PD: Kansas City and compare that to the same department’s run on The First 48. It’s the same city, the same unit and even some of the same detectives, but there’s no contest. There’s a lot more humanity in The First 48. There are better production values.

And in general, The First 48 is the product of a different time over 20 years ago—when true crime was more of documentary than entertainment, and wasn’t trying to clamor for a viewer’s attention in a sea of similar shows. This series can’t get made again because the whole true crime genre has exploded into something much larger and more sensational. There are whole channels devoted entirely to true crime, so those channels have to turn out more programs. And those programs are now more about keeping viewers hooked and creating buzzworthy moments than what they bring to the table.

Ironically, while so many other programs claim to bring people inside or show them something new or shocking, The First 48 has already been doing that without even trying. Its entertainment value comes from just being real. This show has nothing to prove—because when it started, it wasn’t competing with a bunch of other series, and streaming, and people’s cell phones. It didn’t exist in a world where everyone was fixated on true crime. It had the time and space to just do a damn good job, and it deservedly earned a great reputation, and so now it stands on its own. True crime has changed too much for a series like this to happen again.

Separate from the contributions that it’s made to television, The First 48 proved to be an invaluable tool in relations between police and not just their communities, but communities around the world. So much of this show has worked against the stereotypes of police and even of homicide victims. There are numerous reasons for this, from the overall lack of sensationalism to the very format of the show allowing people to be presented in more than bits and soundbites. Even on COPS, people are seeing those officers in selected segments. Not everything makes it into an episode of The First 48, but there’s a continuity that creates an emotional relationship between the fans and the people involved. There’s also space created for the victims and their loved ones in every single episode.

The chief issue surrounding The First 48 has been how it presents cities to an audience, and truthfully that’s a criticism that needs to be levied at almost every other true crime show except this one. Episodes of The First 48 are typically balanced and well-rounded. There are those aforementioned considerations for legal and personal reasons, but the mistakes don’t get cut out. The parts that don’t make sense aren’t cut out (Justin Ritter had a whole episode of that). Nobody is made to look good or bad. These people look good because they actually are good people. And something else that no other show can do is that because of the series’ longevity, audiences get to see people evolve and learn and progress. (Again, see Justin Ritter. Or Chase Calhoun. Or Ronnie Leatherman leaving Homicide twice.)

Audiences are genuinely smarter about policing because of The First 48. They’re aware that the police are not one amorphous entity, and that policing changes depending on the community. A&E has been able to expand on that and launch three new shows that are all marketed by region. The First 48 creates questions, answers others, and provokes emotional reactions. It exists for a lot more than entertainment and that, most of all, is why it can’t disappear. Without this regular exposure and these conversations, there’s nothing to counteract assumptions about the police, or at worst those ideas get reinforced. The First 48 can say and do things other true crime series don’t and never will be able to. Luckily, while the show as viewers know it is essentially ending, there’s also hope for there to be another chapter further down the line.

HOW THE FIRST 48 STILL HAS A FUTURE

As disappointing as all this information is, The First 48 fans should know that this is not an irreversible situation. It’s entirely possible for A&E to turn around their decision, be it a few months or a few years from now. The show would be incontrovertibly different for all the reasons mentioned above, but it would still exist in some form.

There’s also plenty of room to build upon the series’ success. Little things like consistent scheduling of new episodes and more social media promotion would make a huge difference in keeping The First 48 in the true crime conversation. A&E has more recently started posting full episodes on its YouTube channel, but there’s so much more that can be done, such as the deleted scenes that haven’t been shared in a while, or the “What’s Good In” ad spots that used to feature community happenings in the cities that The First 48 filmed in. Especially with other A&E shows like Ozark Law and the upcoming Southern Law taking a more regional approach, this is a great time to highlight the different cities of The First 48—which would also dispel the most common criticism of the show in the process.

The addition of a new department is also a going concern. Assuming that production is able to return to the cities it’s now left—The First 48 without Tulsa isn’t The First 48 at all—the last few seasons have been noticeably different with a smaller pool of departments. This would be an optimal time to perhaps go back to Mobile, now that there’s been a change in leadership there. North Charleston hasn’t been on the show long enough to judge their impact. The series needs another foundational team like Tulsa, Mobile or Dallas, and it could reset and start again. Even just getting Mobile back would launch this show onto another level.

Nothing has been done that can’t be changed, and maybe this is an opportunity to look at what works and what can get better, and come back even stronger. But there also isn’t anything for certain; all that fans can take at face value is that The First 48 isn’t filming anymore. And while all good things eventually come to an end, the show and the people who work on it have done so much that this is a sad occasion that deserves to be recognized. Whether it comes back or not, this series needs to be appreciated more.

The First 48 airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on A&E. Photo Credit: Courtesy of A&E.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.