Oxygen will mark 20 years of its reality crime series Snapped with a two-hour special in May.

The show’s anniversary special debuts May 12 on Oxygen and promises to include new updates to the show's “craziest” Snapped cases, according to the network. The series, which debuted on Oxygen in 2004 and has chronicled the lives of women who lost control and were charged with murder, is currently in its 33rd season, according to the network. Overall, Snapped will have aired 646 episodes by the end of the current season, Oxygen said. 

The series, one of the first shows launched in the now-burgeoning true crime genre, has spawned three spinoffs, including Snapped: Killer Couples, Snapped: Behind Bars, and Snapped: Notorious.

The current season of Snapped is on track to be the shows strongest-performing season ever, averaging 725,000 total viewers in multiplatform viewing, per Nielsen figures supplied by Oxygen.

Turns out, even court shows have gotten too expensive for daytime syndication. 

The challenge with daytime — the hours between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. — is that it has become very hard for stations to make money in those time slots. That’s why court shows are so appealing in those hours: An entire year of programming can be produced within a few weeks and the shows can be sold on a station-friendly, barter-only basis. But the dwindling daytime audience is making it difficult for stations to keep low-cost court shows on the air, which is why even lower-cost repeats are becoming prevalent. 

In the past two years, three of the genre’s major shows have ended. CBS Media Ventures’s Judge Judy completed original production in 2021, while
Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year canceled The People’s Court, which aired in syndication for 26 seasons, and Judge Mathis, which ran for 24. All three of those shows remain on TV stations in repeats. They are joined by MGM’s block of court repeats — Paternity Court With Lauren Lake, Personal Injury Court and Couples Court With the Cutlers — which run on stations under the title “Relationship Court.” 

Also concluding its run is Wrigley Media’s Relative Justice, starring Judge Rhonda Willis, which aired in first-run syndication for three seasons. 

True-blue Judy viewers can find her in originals on Amazon Freevee, where she stars in a Judge Judy lookalike, Judy Justice. Those repeats are also being offered to stations, although so far there haven’t been takers due to the seller seeking cash license fees in a cash-strapped market.

Shakeout in the Court

Of all the court shows that have aired in recent years, only two standalone shows remain in original production: CBS Media Ventures’s Hot Bench, which was created by Judge Judy Sheindlin, and Fox’s Divorce Court, which features Star Jones and is now headed into its 25th season. Divorce Court stays in the black by airing on other platforms.

“Older episodes of Divorce Court have dedicated channels on different platforms and it plays all over the place,” said Stephen Brown, executive VP, programming, Fox Television Stations and Fox First Run. “It’s to the point where we make more money on streaming than we do on the broadcast.” 

Arguably the winner of the court fallout is Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, which snapped up People’s Court’s Judge Marilyn Milian and Judge Greg Mathis and gave them both their own new shows. Those shows — Justice for the People With Judge Milian and Mathis Court With Judge Mathis — join Equal Justice With Judge Eboni K. Williams as AMG rolls out three more court shows this fall, bringing its total court offering to nine. AMG tends to bundle these shows into blocks, cume the ratings and sell advertising across the entire block. AMG owns its shows outright and also offers them on its own streaming and cable networks, creating ancillary revenue streams. It’s a model that others are seeking to emulate.                     

“We made a conscious choice many years ago to be the leader in the space,” Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of AMG, said. “Legal is a very important advertising category for local TV stations. There are plenty of law firms that are advertising and they like the environment of court shows. We are helping TV stations to capitalize on the category and hold on to it.” 

Besides AMG, there are others out there who are willing to take swings. 

This fall, Atlanta-based Crazy Legs Productions is rolling out Cutlers Court, starring Dana and Keith Cutler. The married couple from Kansas City are both lawyers who cut their court-show teeth on MGM’s Couples Court With the Cutlers, which ran in original production from 2017-20. MGM, which was acquired by Amazon in 2022, has since exited the court business.

Cutlers Court is cleared in more than 80% of the U.S. and it’s been picked up in 17 of the top 20 markets on stations from such groups as CBS Television Stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television, Weigel Broadcasting, Tegna and E.W. Scripps.

“The departure of other court shows left a vacuum that we’re filling,” Tom Cappello, executive producer and co-founder and CEO of Crazy Legs, said. “We know that there are available time slots for our show. That’s made it a good time to get into the syndication space.” 

Like most court shows, Cutlers Court is being sold on an all-barter basis and will air as double runs in most markets. Production started in August in Atlanta, with 150 original half-hour episodes planned for the Monday-Friday daytime strip.

“We saw an opportunity in the marketplace where there was a real demand for real cases, real litigants and real drama,” Cappello said. “We decided to get into this space and this genre because I think it works really well for a smaller boutique production company like us rather than a big brand like MGM or Warner Bros. Discovery.”

Cutlers Court is Crazy Legs’s first foray into first-run syndication but it has been producing unscripted shows for such networks as Discovery, Travel, ID, TLC, HGTV, Magnolia and DIY for 15 years. Crazy Legs is working on building a content library that it can then distribute directly to consumers, much like AMG
is doing. 

“We’re hoping that this is just the start of many syndicated programs, including court, lifestyle and game shows,” Cappello said.

The new show will feature the Cutlers again talking to couples about their relationship problems. Where Couples Court started and ended with cheating, though, Cutlers Court will go broader, Playing Field Entertainment executive producer and co-founder Ross Babbit said.

“It may be a cheating case, but it may be a paternity case or a question of, ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ ” Babbit said. “We’re bringing a wider variety of love stories.”

A sibling to court is true crime, which seems like a category that would play well among daytime’s core audience of women 25-54 (or older). So far, though, it’s been hard to get true-crime shows to stick in syndication. 

Making True Crime Pay

The exception to that is NBC News-produced series Dateline, which launched a repackaged syndicated version in 2017 after testing the concept on about 20 stations in August 2016. Now headed into its seventh season as a strip, weekend hour and primetime show on Fox-owned MyNetworkTV, Dateline has proven itself to be a reliable syndication player. The show is cleared in 100% of the country and in all 210 markets, Sean O’Boyle, executive VP and general sales manager, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, said. 

“The marketplace needs content and it’s not expensive for studios to offer programming like this,” O’Boyle said. “The notion of spending millions for the next Ellen or Kelly Clarkson is past. This is a good example of right-sizing.”

Moreover, true crime is taking up some of the space that soap operas used to fill because a well-told true-crime story has a beginning, middle and an end. It’s that drive toward resolution that keeps viewers hooked, O’Boyle said.

To that end, CBS this fall is launching a similar product, 48 Hours, repackaged and updated for syndication with Jericka Duncan and Jonathan Vigliotti serving as anchors. CBS News has nearly 600 episodes to offer to TV stations as 48 Hours has been in production since 1988. The show still airs on Saturday nights on CBS.

“We wanted to do two things: distinguish the library shows that are going to syndication and distinguish from brand-new fresh content that then makes its way downstream,” executive producer Judy Tygard said. “We added Jericka and Jon because they can give the shows the additional content that’s needed.” 

Duncan and Vigliotti are providing new information in each case, giving them more content, including opens, mid-joins and transitions. 

The show is cleared on an all-barter basis in more than 97% of the country in 190 markets with the 15 CBS-owned stations serving as the launch group. It’s sold to stations in the Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair, Fox Television Stations, Gray Television, Cox Media Group, Tegna and E.W. Scripps station groups. 

48 Hours has been undergoing a brand expansion over the last several years. The show airs on CBS on Saturday nights but also has broadcast, cable and streaming windows on the CBS News Streaming Network, CBSNews.com, Paramount Plus, YouTube, Fave TV, Pop TV and domestically and internationally on Paramount-owned FAST platform Pluto TV. It’s also licensed to networks in dozens of countries across the globe. The show also produces a podcast, and correspondent Erin Moriarty has her own podcast, titled My Life of Crime.

The ability to wring that much distribution, and thus revenue, from a piece of content is going to become increasingly vital to producers’ bottom lines as audiences continue to fragment across platforms. 

Trifecta also is taking a third true crime-focused program — iCrime With Elizabeth Vargas, a show in which people submit videos they shot on their phones — into season two.

Looking ahead, both station groups and syndicators said they are in development on new court shows with fresh talent and their eyes are firmly fixed on 2024. 

“It might be time to come out with something new,” Fox Television Stations executive VP, programming Frank Cicha said. “If you look at it, court does well on FAST channels and diginets. We have platforms for a new court show if you don’t care about exclusivity.”

TNT will launch the second season of its true crime anthology series Rich & Shameles$ on Sunday (May 7).

The series, which documents the successes, failures, thrills and miseries that accompany wealth in the world of sports, will open its sophomore campaign with a look at the financial ups and downs of controversial NBA champion and All-Star Dennis Rodman, said the network. Rich & Shameles$ premieres Sunday after TNT’s NBA playoffs coverage.

Also: Star Power Drives TNT’s NHL, NBA Playoff Ratings Push, Says WBD’s Craig Barry (Q&A)

Other episodes in the series explore stories surrounding WWE superstar Hulk Hogan, former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, and late NBA star Lorenzen Wright, said TNT. 

Lifetime will look to draw true crime fans with a slate of new unscripted content that will anchor a new Monday primetime programming block beginning in June. 

The Life & Crime Mondays block of shows will launch June 6 with the premiere of two new shows,  #TextMeWhenYouGetHome and Sleeping with a Killer. Two additional shows, Phrogging: Hider in My House and Meet Marry Murder will debut later this summer, according to the network. 

#TextMeWhenYouGetHome follows cases of innocent women who has been abducted, harmed or even murdered by someone on what was an otherwise average day in her life, while Sleeping with a Killer examines real-life cases where jealousy pushes individuals to do the unthinkable, according to the network. 

Two additional shows, Phrogging: Hider in My House, which explores the phenomenon of people secretly living inside someone else’s home, and Meet Marry Murder – which reveals the gripping true stories of marriages gone terribly wrong – will debut later this summer, according to the network. 

“True crime has proven to be addictive, and people cannot get enough,” said Amy Winter, Executive VP and Head of Programming for Lifetime and LMN in a statement. “Our Ripped From the Headlines movies have really struck a chord with our audiences and we are excited to expand our crime offerings with these new unscripted series joining the network. Lifetime is the perfect home for these cautionary, fascinating and stranger-than-fiction programs.”

Oxygen will chronicle the final moments of crime victims as part of a new documentary series Final Moments.

The eight-episode series, produced by Dick Wolf (Law & Order) focuses on difficult and gut-wrenching crimes in which law enforcement’s efforts to solve a case hinges on dissecting the victim’s final moments, said network officials.

"We’re using the last video, the last text, the last cell phone conversation to tell the story of what led up to, and what was the horrific aftermath of a murder," Wolf Entertainment executive producer Tom Thayer told Multichannel News. "This is someone’s last communication or someone’s last appearance on a surveillance camera, seemingly innocent at the time, but revealing as later crucial evidence in the solving of the homicide. It’s dropping the viewer into that one moment that was someone’s last [moment] to be with them prior to their death."  

Through the use of the victim’s last interactions with family and friends, surveillance footage, text messages and social media posts, the series looks to build a timeline to determine what could have happened to the victim, Oxygen said.

Also: An Empire of TV Crime Shows Raised by Wolf

"Final Moments fits with the Oxygen brand because it captures the storylines our viewers love most – how the case was solved, how the killer was brought to justice and the emotional portrayal of the victim,” NBCU Television and Streaming senior VP of unscripted current production Stephanie Steele. "Final Moments illustrates the final day of a victim’s life through the lens of the investigation and through the experience of the victim’s loved ones.”

Steele added that the series continues the network's focus on the true-crime brand, which remains popular with its targeted female audience. "True crime resonates with our viewers because the storytelling is based on the truth, and there’s nothing more compelling than the real story," she said.

Final Moments is produced by Good Cable Content and Wolf Entertainment, with Dick Wolf, Tom Thayer, Kathryn Vaughan, Jordana Hochman and Tim McConville serving as executive producers.

Final Moments premieres on Oxygen Sunday, April 3 at 7/6 c. ■

Discovery Plus has greenlit a new true crime series from Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson on a new series that will highlight female crime bosses.

The series, Confessions of A Crime Queen, each season will profile a larger-than-life woman who created and led a multi-million-dollar criminal empire before a dramatic fall from power, according to the streaming service. The series will combine documentary and scripted genres, and will feature an A-list actress who will also interview the real life female crime lord at the center of the story. 

Confessions of A Crime Queen is slated to debut in 2022, according to Discovery Plus. 

Also Read: Discovery Plus Sets May ‘40 Year Old Property Virgin’ Launch Date

“Discovery Plus is delighted to partner with Curtis, G-Unit Film & Television, Goodbye Pictures and Lionsgate on this ambitious and innovative project,” said Lisa Holme, Discovery Plus group senior VP commercial content and strategy, in a statement. “Combining our unparalleled home for original true crime content with his vision for how to tell these stories in a new way will give true crime fans a fresh perspective on the genre.” 

The Widower, a three-part true-crime miniseries from the producers of Dateline NBC, starts on NBC Thursday, Feb. 18. The twisting and turning series, about a man who has had four wives die under mysterious circumstances, represents the first time the network is airing a multi-night, true-crime series from Dateline. 

“It just seemed like an unusual show that probably deserved a different kind of treatment,” said Paul Ryan, co-executive producer. “It deserved multiple nights.”

Thomas Randolph, who is 66, is accused of murdering his sixth wife. Ryan called him “a strange and outrageous and unusual character.” 

The producers had extraordinary access to Randolph. The perp loved the attention, Ryan said, and was convinced he could persuade viewers of his innocence. “He has supreme confidence in his ability to evade the system, and to charm people — lawyers, judges, producers,” Ryan said. 

ALSO READ: True Crime Steals Viewers for Advertisers

The producers also got ample access to the law enforcement people chasing down the bad guy. 

“You’re literally there with the cops when they’re interviewing witnesses,” said Ryan. “You’re really putting the puzzle together with them.”

Dateline investigative producer Dan Slepian began documenting the murder investigation in 2008 while embedded with the Las Vegas Police Department. Ryan noted the work of Det. Dean O’Kelley, who appears in the miniseries. “He’s the most amazing, dogged, dedicated public servant you’d ever want to see,” said Ryan. “I was blown away by how much this guy cared and how far he was willing to go.”

Episode one on Feb. 18 is one hour. Episode two a day later is two hours, and the conclusion, on Sunday, Feb. 21, is two hours. It will also stream on Peacock, which has a dedicated Dateline 24/7 channel. 

Dateline NBC airs Fridays at 9 p.m. (ET). It at times goes to two hours, but a multi-night series from Dateline is uncharted territory. “Stories like this don’t come down the pike all that often,” said Ryan. 

If The Widower finds a large audience, he added, the producers are up for going multi-night on future stories that merit it. 

Thomas Randolph will draw a few viewers. “He’s such an intriguing and unusual guy,” said Ryan. 

Season three of True Conviction, which sees homicide prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi investigate how top prosecutors get convictions on difficult cases, is on Investigation Discovery (ID) Dec. 30. The season starts with “Shattered Home,” in which an unknown assailant shoots a 32-year-old mother in her bedroom but leaves her husband alone. 

There are 10 episodes. 

Also Read: ID Expands Collaboration with Author James Patterson

“The series explores the real-life stories of how homicides are solved on the street but won in the courtroom,” said ID. “With more than two decades of experience in the judicial system, no one knows the delicate dance between arrest and conviction better than Nicolazzi.”

In each episode, Nicolazzi relives the crime with the detectives who were on the scene. 

The season premiere, which ID calls a “special sneak peek,” airs at 11 p.m. ET Dec. 30. The show moves into the Wednesdays-at-10 slot the following week. 

Oxygen continues to build on its true crime-themed lineup in April, including new series Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project as well as specials Catching a Serial Killer: Sam Little and Snapped: Notorious Hollywood Ripper.

Rod Aissa, executive VP, original programming, Oxygen Media and E! Production, spoke with Multichannel News about true crime content’s popularity and the NBCUniversal-owned network’s evolving strategy. Here’s an edited excerpt of the conversation.

MCN: Did Oxygen’s move to true crime two years ago generate the ratings and brand development results that were anticipated?

Rod Aissa: It actually has. We’ve had another year of growth since our rebrand in our original true-crime programming block, and for us that is significant — that made us know that we are still relevant and we’re still on the path of evolution in our brand. We’re looking to diversify with more hours. Our struggle has always been, how do we get more hours to compete with the streaming devices, as well as the goliaths that some of our competitors in the cable landscape are. Now that we’re able to increase those hours, we have a stronger foothold in being a differentiator in the space.

MCN: Why is true crime so popular?

RA: There’s not a higher stake than a truecrime story. You can go on Jeopardy! and win a million dollars, but the stakes of life and death are the ultimate challenge. Getting into the psychology of why someone commits a crime and how justice gets served is fascinating to viewers. Whether we’re red, blue or independent, we all have to believe that our justice system is going to work for us. The genre itself speaks to amazing storytelling, and I think it also speaks to relatability and high stakes.

MCN: How will the industry evolve in 2020?

RA: You expect to see more movement on the streaming side. We’re excited about the Peacock launch because it provides more places to make content. As long as you can continue to make content in this game and get it out to the target audience, I think places like Oxygen will continue to be in really good shape. Within NBCU we’re the only crime network, so we’re additive to the sales offerings and we provide diversity in the portfolio, which is really important. We’re not trying to chase the same things that our sister networks are chasing.

MCN: How will the streaming wars evolve?

RA: It’ll be interesting to see with the launches of Quibi and Peacock — and with Disney+ seemingly doing well — who survives, how the various services survive and evolve within the marketplace.

MCN: You also oversee E! Productions. What are the expectations for that?

RA: We love the family doc space, and thanks to [Keeping Up With The Kardashians] and a few others we’ve had great success in it. We’re also looking at some old franchises from back in the day like E! True Hollywood Story and Talk Soup. There’s never been a better time for curation and funny commentary, so we certainly feel blessed to have all of these things to write and joke about.

We’ve also launched a news programming block in the morning from 7 to 11 a.m., which is drawing in a diverse audience. E! in its new evolution is building upon what’s worked in the past, while seeking to expand upon that with new content.

FX will debut its first true crime docuseries, The Most Dangerous Animal of All on March 6, 

The series, based on The New York Times best-selling book of the same name, explores Gary L. Stewart’s search for the father who abandoned him, only to uncover the worst: he believes his father is the Zodiac killer, one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, according to FX. 

All four episodes of The Most Dangerous Animal of All will air March 6, with the series moving to FX on Hulu the next day.  

Lifetime tonight will premiere a new primetime block of true crime-based programming, which is not surprising since the genre is making a killing with female viewers.

Networks, from true crime-branded cable outlets such as Investigation Discovery and Oxygen, to general-entertainment services like Lifetime, TV One and Reelz Channel, are reeling in female viewers attracted to dramatic re-enactments of often grizzly crimes — mostly committed by and against women — that are often as thrilling and more unpredictable than fiction-based scripted series.

Women are the majority of viewers for shows in virtually every subgenre of the category, from live trials to story-driven tales of murder for love to documentaries on injustices within the criminal system, according to network executives.

“People don’t think of women as watching crime dramas, which is a stereotype, and this proves that crime can pay with male and female viewers,” said Marc Berman, editor of TV industry website Programming Insider. “That’s been one of the major misperceptions in our business.”

Investigation Discovery currently tops cable networks in drawing adult women 25-54 on a total day basis, according to network executives. General manager Kevin Bennett said ID’s 650 hours of original genre content skews 60% female, with shows such as Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda and Deadly Women, as well as news magazines such as The Real Story With María Elena Salinas — drawing even higher shares of women viewers looking to watch as crimes are solved or to get the story behind a sensational crime.

Related: ID Orders Season Three of ‘People Magazine Investigates’

“All ID viewers are drawn to the high stakes stories of human nature — the twists and turns of a case and the ability to play along and solve the mystery,” Bennett said. “Because it’s real people and real stories you always have that emotional storytelling, and that’s what ID tries to bring consistently.”

All About the Stories

While many of the stories depicted within the true crime category deal with very bloody, grisly acts of violence, Bennett said that what appeals to women are the stories that lead up to the crimes, as well as the justice that is meted out to the perpetrators.

“We are not about car chases and gunfights — we’re really about the emotional impact that these stories [offer] people and also about the mystery side of things,” he said. “These are real stories, so there is a real emotional connection.”

Oxygen has posted double-digit ratings gains among women viewers in total-day ratings since adopting an all true-crime format last summer, according to Nielsen.

Related: Oxygen Greenlights Eight Series Amid Transition to Crime Genre

Executive vice president of programming and development Rod Aissa said shows such as Snapped — now in its 23rd season — as well as upcoming series In Defense Of appeal to women viewers because they tend to get emotionally invested in the victims and sometimes the perpetrator, with audience memebrs often feeling they could find themselves in the particular situation depicted on-screen.

“A lot of women are watching because of the narrative and storytelling that exists in the true-crime stories, and the stakes couldn’t be any higher,” he said. “Women also invest in the victims, so at its best a true crime show is about the pursuit of justice for a victim and they allow the audience to invest in the women in a significant way.”

That doesn’t mean that men are left on the outside looking in at the genre. Aissa said men tune in when the subject matter pertains to their interests, particularly if it’s sports-themed.

The second installment of Oxygen’s two-part March docuseries Aaron Hernandez Uncovered — which profiled the former New England Patriots tight end who in 2017 committed suicide in his jail cell while serving time on a murder conviction — drew more than 1.25 million viewers and set records for a network true-crime program across all adults 18-49 and 25-54.

“There is an opportunity to grow the audience from just strictly female into some other co-viewing opportunities,” Aissa said.

While the audience for Reelz skews majority female, network executives said the genre can draw co-viewing opportunities with the right subjects.

“There certain types of crime stories you can do — if you’re going to do an historical story on Bugsy Siegel, that’s most likely going to attract male viewers,” said Steve Cheskin, senior vice president of programming. “But when you do stories that involve romance triangles or cases where children are involved like the [convicted murderer] Jodi Arias or [accused child murderer] Casey Anthony cases, you get an emotional connection.”

For Reelz, shows such as Copy Cat Killers and Murder Made Me Famous have often pulled in a 70% female audience. Cheskin added that the storylines in those docudramas can be so intense and involving, the genre often mirrors the appeal of scripted programming. “Many of the crime stories and the procedurals on cable and broadcast networks tend to skew female, so it isn’t surprising that these shows would follow that track, except that these are real stories instead of something that’s made up.”

Lifetime will take a stab at the genre beginning tonight (June 18) with a “Justice for Women” true crime-themed programming block hosted by Gretchen Carlson and anchored by the premiere of Live PD Presents: Women On Patrol. The series, a spinoff of sister network A&E’s Live PD docuseries, follows women law enforcement officers from around the country.

Related: How Twitter Engagement Has Cemented ‘Live PD’ as the ‘Cops’ for a New Millennium

Lifetime executive vice president and head of programming Gena McCarthy said the new true crime-themed unscripted series — combined with original films based on real-life crime cases — provides a unique approach to the genre.

“True crime is one of those classic perennial genres with inherent drama, high emotion, compelling twists and turns in the narrative, huge personal stakes and, ultimately, a big puzzle to solve,” she said. “Women love solving all of that and Lifetime women have a long legacy of really enjoying that content from the movies that we’ve done and continue to do based on ripped-from-the-headlines stories.”

If the true crime block — which also features the fourth season premiere of Escaping Polygamy — clicks with viewers, Lifetime will dive deeper into the genre with more scripted and unscripted content, according to McCarthy.

Spreading the Wealth

Other female-skewing and entertainment-based networks are stepping into the genre with content that will appeal in particular to female viewers:

• TV One earlier this month debuted Evidence of Innocence, which profiles true stories of individuals wrongly convicted of crimes.

• The Weather Channel this fall will premiere Storm of Suspicion, about crimes where weather played a central role to the narrative and investigation. While TWC’s audience splits evenly between male and female viewers, network senior vice president of content and programming Nora Zimmett said the true-crime nature of the series will most likely draw more female viewers to the channel.

“True crime has become an incredibly popular genre across media spaces; not only linear television, but podcasts and works of literary nonfiction are exploding,” she said. “We think this show will appeal to both sexes but would not be surprised if there were to be greater interest from women, given that research has shown that more women than men gravitate to the true crime genre.”

Related: True Crime Confidential

Upstart Law & Crime network, which launched in March, said women make up 60% of the audience tuning in for a slate of predominately live trial coverage.

Women viewers are willing to sit through the trial process and listen to witness testimony to determine guilt or innocence for themselves, network editor in chief Rachel Stockman said.

Stockman said women are more apt to talk about trials on social media: They make up 75% to 80% of the participants within the network’s digital platform and sites.

“Live trials are the biggest soap operas there are,” Stockman said. “You’re with the jurors watching this play out and you’re playing armchair detective trying to figure out how all of this plays out.”

The fervor for true-crime content among audiences in general, and in particular among women, isn’t likely to decline in the near future, according to executives. A recent Oxygen study showed that the percentage of viewers interested in the genre has grown significantly over the past year, with 46% of respondents saying they’re becoming more interested in true crime programming, up 33% year over year, senior vice president of strategy insights and research for NBCU’s Lifestyle Networks Dave Kaplan said.

He doesn’t think the rash of new players in the genre will create oversaturation across the various distribution platforms.

“I think that speaks to the fact that the genre is evolving and that there’s more diversity and content from a number of players,” he said. “People are getting to know the genre in new and different ways, and as a result is sparking this wave of interest. Some networks focus on the investigative/law enforcement side of it, others focus on the actual criminals themselves, others focus on the victims. From what we’re seeing the demand keeps growing, and the supply isn’t necessarily enough to sustain the demand.”

Unwitting victims kidnapped off the street and brutally murdered. Serial killers scattering body parts across miles of swampland. Desperate searches by law-enforcement officials in a race against time to find a missing person.

At first blush, these terrible incidents seem incomprehensible to the typical TV viewer. Yet millions tune in almost every night to one of several networks that depict such stories — part of the popular genre of true-crime programming.

Such networks as Investigation Discovery (ID) — which devotes its entire programming lineup to true-crime content — as well as Lifetime, Oxygen, TV One, HLN and A&E are betting that depictions and re-enactments of disturbing and mysterious tales of real-life murder and mayhem will continue to captivate viewers who can’t seem to look away from the tragedies explored in genre-based series, documentaries and specials.

The true-crime genre has particular appeal to women viewers, who generally favor mysteries with dramatic storylines but also see their greatest fears reflected in the TV genre’s harrowing tales of murder and violence, most often featuring stories of crimes against women.

Just last year, cable and broadcast networks aired five projects about the 1996 death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey and three projects on the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson. LMN, NBC and ABC this year aired shows about the life and crimes of cult leader and murderer Charles Manson.

And more projects are on the docket:

• Women-targeted lifestyle channel Oxygen will offer a reboot of the Dick Wolf-produced series Cold Justice as part of its late 2017 rebrand into a crime destination network targeting millennial women.

• NBC is gearing up for a new entry in the Law & Order franchise focused on the sensational 1993 murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) will star in the eight-episode Law & Order: True Crime — The Menendez Murders.

• Lifetime will also delve into the Menendez brothers’ murder of their parents as part of an original movie, which will star Courtney Love as Lyle and Erik’s mother.

• A&E, which last month resurrected its iconic series Cold Case Files, will tackle the 1990s murders of rap stars Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur in separate episodes of its reimagined Biography franchise, which returns later this year after a five-year hiatus.

• ID will comb through the child-murder trial of Casey Anthony in April with limited series Casey Anthony: An American Murder.

• Discovery Channel and HLN will feature shows surrounding 1990s "Unabomber" suspect Theodore Kaczynski

TV executives cited several factors for true crime’s TV resurgence, including the current crowded TV environment, with more than 450 scripted series on offer, and a confusing political and news arena where real vs. alternative facts are the subject of debate. Viewers are fixated on both current real-life crimes and incidents from the recent past that remain unsolved or invoke more questions than answers.

WIDE-RANGING APPEAL
“There’s a certain kind of sensationalism that in some ways, as a genre, appeals to both educated and barely educated men and women equally,” said Steven Weinstock, co-president and co-CEO of production company Truly Original, which produces ID’s non-scripted series Vanity Fair Confidential. “There’s a certain kind of touchstone that true crime hits, because in a narrative form, it’s very effective in creating a puzzle that forces an engagement in the process by the viewer.”

Added A&E executive vice president and head of programming Elaine Frontain Bryant, “I think people love a good mystery, and because there is so much chaos in the world, I think people just love to settle down and watch with the satisfaction of knowing that problems can be solved.”

The genre isn’t exactly new to cable: Unscripted reality shows such as Oxygen’s Snapped and A&E’s Cold Case Files and The First 48, as well as newsmagazine shows such as NBC’s Dateline, have chronicled real-life murderers and unsolved mysteries for decades. Interest in the genre seems to have peaked in recent months, though, with the launch of high-profile series that have captured viewers’ imaginations.

Projects like HBO’s 2015 docuseries The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which followed the Manhattan real-estate heir who was considered a person of interest in several murders; and Netflix’s gripping Making a Murderer, which shadowed the Wisconsin murder trial of Steven Avery, have breathed additional life into the genre.

Truly Original’s Weinstock said the sensational nature of the real-life crimes depicted in those shows appeals to the basic human desire to be safe, and to viewers’ sense of voyeurism with regard to violent incidents and actions that would otherwise invoke fear and emotional stress.

‘SOCIAL REALISM’
“Part of the appeal of true crime is a kind of social realism,” Weinstock said. “True crime can describe events that are risqué, deviant or even mundane that [viewers] wouldn’t otherwise have access to.”

Also, true-crime shows allow viewers to play the role of couch detective as they try to finger the perpetrators before the actual killer is revealed — or of judge and jury when they already know who did it.

Supercharging the genre were three recent programs on the 1995 O.J. Simpson “Trial of the Century”: ESPN’s five-part docuseries O.J.: Made in America, which last month won an Oscar for best documentary; FX’s limited scripted series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which won five Primetime Emmy Awards; and ID’s Is O.J. Innocent? The Missing Evidence, which explored new theories and never-before-seen evidence regarding the trial.

Series such as Is O.J. Innocent? introduced well-known crime stories to younger audiences who may not have known much about the trial’s details, and allowed those viewers to make up their own minds about the verdict, said Henry Schlieff, president of the Discovery Communications network group that includes ID.

“In the case of O.J., if you go with the murder trial verdict, the killer was never found, so we give them a chance to decide what happened for themselves based on the evidence presented,” Schleiff said.

True-crime shows haven’t reached the lofty ratings level of top scripted shows such as AMC’s The Walking Dead, or even popular reality shows like Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta or Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush, both of which average more than 2 million viewers per episode. But true-crime aficionados are a loyal, passionate audience representing a cross-section of viewers, network officials said.

Some genre-specific shows have slashed through the cornucopia of TV content to generate big ratings. Lifetime’s Nov. 5 original movie Who Killed JonBenet? drew 1.5 million viewers, among the network’s highestperforming movies of last year.

Overall, ID set a network primetime ratings record in February, averaging more than 1.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen. It finished February as the most watched network on a total-day basis (Nielsen live-plus-3) among women 25-54.

Thirteen of ID’s primetime shows averaged more than 1 million viewers in February on a Nielsen live-plus-3- day basis, including shows with such provocative titles as Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda, Murder Chose Me and Evil Lives Here.

“We do a lot of research, and people anecdotally are saying that that they’ve had enough of scripted drama and love to see these true crime stories play out,” Schleiff said. “The true-crime genre has never been hotter, so we love our position.”

Oxygen also will look to slay female viewers when it rebrands. The network, which already features the longest-running series in the genre with the 14-yera-old Snapped, will build on its true-crime lineup when it revamps later this year with the relaunch of former TNT series Cold Justice.

Oxygen’s shift in focus will mean removing hits with broader appeal, such as Bad Girls Club, with hopes that true crime will draw younger and older women to the network. The crime stories entertain while offering viewers a cautionary tale, executive vice president of programming and development Rod Aissa said.

“We hear in focus groups all the time that a lot of this true crime is identifiable for women: Be careful where you go; be careful dating online; make sure people know where you are,” Aissa said. “It’s very tangible for our audience.”

Since it launched in 2016, Oxygen’s “Crime Time” weekend block of true-crime programming has posted a 22% increase in viewing by women 25-54 and a 42% increase in total viewers compared with 2015, according to Oxygen.

In October, the network expanded the block to include Fridays and Mondays.

HOLDING OUT FOR HEROES
Along with unsuspecting victims, true crime programming also depicts heroes in the detectives who do the dirty work to find killers or missing persons, A&E’s Frontain Bryant said — and that also resonates with viewers. That’s one of the reasons the network decided to bring back Cold Case Files after more than a decade’s hiatus.

The 10-episode series, which reopens criminal cases that have gone unsolved for years, debuted Feb. 27.

“I think this is also a time when people need to look for heroes — the people who will not let it go until they solve the case,” she said.

Despite the spree of new shows, ID’s Schleiff isn’t concerned about true-crime oversaturation.

“We love the fact that others are finally coming into our space,” Schleiff said. “It heightens the interest in the category.”

A&E will reboot its Emmy-nominated series Cold Case Files in February after more than a decade's hiatus.

The series, which explores reopened criminal cases that have gone unsolved for years, will return for a 10-episode run beginning Feb. 27, according to network officials. Actor Danny Glover will narrate the series, which last aired on A&E in 2006.

Cold Case Files will be produced by Blumhouse Television (The Jinx) and global production studio AMPLE, said A&E.

"Cold Case Files remains one of A&E’s most beloved and successful series of all time,” Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming for A&E, said in a release.  “The new creative team has infused the franchise with a rejuvenated approach to storytelling at a time when true crime investigation is capturing the nation’s attention more than ever.”