Post by Scumhunter on Jan 6, 2019 5:36:29 GMT -5
Greetings, I decided to make a page for some of the most frequently asked questions I see on our forum. We had a previous page but I felt it got outdated with new John Walsh/fugitive shows and such so I decided to make a new FAQ page which would look more current. This is a lot of me saying things without necessarily having proof to back it up, but my experience and sources have me pretty confident in these answers.
1. Why did Fox cancel America's Most Wanted in 2011?
In May 2011, Fox announced they were cancelling AMW as a weekly series and relegating it to four 2-hour specials a year. AMW consistently won its' time slot on Saturday nights and the President of Fox at the time announced the reason for cancellation was not ratings, but AMW's high-production costs. The network had been losing money for years despite AMW's ratings success. Suffice it to say, AMW would have likely been eventually cancelled anyway considering Fox now seems to focus mainly on sports on Saturday nights.
2. Why did Lifetime cancel it?
Not satisfied with only 4 2-hour specials, John Walsh and company decided to bring AMW to a new network if they could.
Because Fox still owned the rights to America's Most Wanted, any network that aired America's Most Wanted still had to pay the network license fees for the rights to the name, logo etc... AMW was an odd-fit on Lifetime and only had moderate ratings success on the channel in addition to being given the Friday night "death slot". Still, according to a source of mine, it was not necessarily really about ratings but rather the exorbitant license fees that caused Lifetime to cancel AMW. No other network wanted to pick up AMW after the Lifetime cancellation either because of those license fees.
3. What happened to "The Hunt with John Walsh"?
The Hunt with John Walsh aired on CNN during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2017, it was announced the show was moving to its sister/smaller network HLN due to CNN's breaking news coverage stories often interrupting the show and HLN being more of a fit since they already has crime-programming such as Forensic Files. April of 2018 was when it was announced John Walsh and company would be moving to the Investigation Discovery (ID) channel with "In Pursuit." This is speculation on my part, but I believe The Hunt ended because John Walsh and company decided that it was best to move to ID since it was a more widely-known and viewed crime channel and would also be even more of a perfect fit with the channel's programming.
4. Don't get me wrong, I still love John Walsh and will watch any show of his, but can he please one day bring America's Most Wanted back as well?
I loved AMW as well, but sometimes things don't last. It is theoretically possible AMW could come back one day, but whatever network that airs it (if it isn't Fox bringing it back) would still need to pay Fox license fees. Since John Walsh has moved on to new endeavours (along with his son Callahan), there would also likely be a new host in this scenario.
5. How do I get my case on In Pursuit (or insert show here)?
From what I've seen so far, "In Pursuit with John Walsh" seems very responsive on Facebook to both public and private requests:
m.facebook.com/InPursuitwithJohnWalsh/?rc=p
A few notes though from what the format seems so far- which is two fugitive segments (along with 2-3 brief 15 seconds of shame profiles) and two brief missing children cases an episode. There are 12 episodes this season which means roughly 24 of each type of case this season. John Walsh has stated in interviews that he unfortunately has to turn down hundreds of cases a week because so many of us need help.
-I am not saying this to sound callous or uncaring, but if your case is a missing adult case and/or an unsolved murder with no known suspect case or another type of non-fugitive or non-missing child case (such as believing your loved one's suicide was really a murder or investigating corruption in your town) you are likely better off looking elsewhere for help as those types of cases don't seem to fit the format of the show.
Don't get me wrong, I would be contacting everyone I could if I were you (and probably not to your extent but I have somewhat been in your shoes before), and by all means contact John Walsh as well. It is just you should not rely on only John Walsh and put all your eggs in one basket and you should contact ANYBODY you can think of in the hope one pays off.
I do have some suggestions if your case doesn't fit the format of a fugitive show. Unsolved Mysteries still takes case requests at their website and they still do YouTube stories. News magazine shows such as Dateline NBC, 20/20 etc... have also forayed into unsolved true crime cases lately. I would also look up/google "true crime podcasts" to find the most popular ones gaining steam. (Podcasts have become extremely popular and have helped solve a few cases lately!). Also the ID channel itself does unsolved cases as well so even if not In Pursuit, I would contact the ID channel itself as perhaps there is another show they could place your case on.
As far as how In Pursuit picks their cases, getting your case on the show even if it is trying to find a known suspect that harmed you or a loved one would still be difficult as a lot of fugitives chosen to be profiled seem to come at the request of the U.S. Marshals and/or FBI, however, a lot of cases also seem to be chosen from staff research from In Pursuit's production company. (They scour the web looking for cases they think would fit the show). I also know family members of victims who have gotten their cases on these shows through their tremendous effort mainly via social media.
So if your case is trying to bring a fugitive to justice for what they did to you and/or loved one, it is still possible for you to get your case on the show. However, you should also keep in mind there are still thousands of fugitives out there and only 24 full segment cases a season (so far), so some of the aforementioned advice for other types of crime cases could apply here as well.
So as far as fugitive cases go, I would recommend getting as many friends family members etc... to contact the show or the ID channel since seeing that kind of dedication to justice would likely have an impact.
Also if possibly asking your local law enforcement and/or Prosecutor's Office handling the case to contact ID would in my opinion be another good angle to go with.
And of course, we can also profile your case at amwfans.com! We'd just need an article or some other kind of proof that it's an actual case, with a contact point (either mentioned in the article or elsewhere) of what police or Crime Stoppers line people should call/email if they have tips.
6. How do I obtain old episodes of America's Most Wanted?
To make a long-story short, old episodes of AMW, especially pre-2000's episodes are extremely difficult if not impossible to find online, likely due to Fox's license fees and copyright laws. However, I created for a subforum for anyone who still wants to take a chance and ask, along with an advice thread going into more detail on this aspect (which you should read first):
Advice thread: amwfans.com/thread/4826/read-episode-request-guidelines-advice
Episode request section: amwfans.com/board/56/true-crime-episode-segment-requests
7. How do I find out if a fugitive has been captured or a case has been resolved?
This site tries it's best to keep with fugitive cases and other crime stories and we have a captured section which shows fugitives captured from AMW, The Hunt (and hopefully soon In Pursuit).
If a fugitive is on the non-capture portions of this site, chances are it is still an active case. Admittedly, it was a few years after we started, but as of mid-2014, I personally started double checking warrants or court searches to make sure a fugitive is still wanted. Admittedly, some fugitives I just use common sense with, if it was a high publicity case even if I can't find a warrant, common sense would tell me the fugitive is likely still at large. But the requirements to add a fugitive to this site are a bit higher now. You can always call your local police station to ask as well. (Although you probably couldn't do that anonymously).
Sometimes a fugitive is captured or another case is resolved and for some reason there is a little media attention on it. This site can't guarantee current accuracy of all the cases. But if you have proof of a capture or case resolution (for example, sometimes if a fugitive is captured in Mexico sometimes there's an article, feel free to send it to us.
1. Why did Fox cancel America's Most Wanted in 2011?
In May 2011, Fox announced they were cancelling AMW as a weekly series and relegating it to four 2-hour specials a year. AMW consistently won its' time slot on Saturday nights and the President of Fox at the time announced the reason for cancellation was not ratings, but AMW's high-production costs. The network had been losing money for years despite AMW's ratings success. Suffice it to say, AMW would have likely been eventually cancelled anyway considering Fox now seems to focus mainly on sports on Saturday nights.
2. Why did Lifetime cancel it?
Not satisfied with only 4 2-hour specials, John Walsh and company decided to bring AMW to a new network if they could.
Because Fox still owned the rights to America's Most Wanted, any network that aired America's Most Wanted still had to pay the network license fees for the rights to the name, logo etc... AMW was an odd-fit on Lifetime and only had moderate ratings success on the channel in addition to being given the Friday night "death slot". Still, according to a source of mine, it was not necessarily really about ratings but rather the exorbitant license fees that caused Lifetime to cancel AMW. No other network wanted to pick up AMW after the Lifetime cancellation either because of those license fees.
3. What happened to "The Hunt with John Walsh"?
The Hunt with John Walsh aired on CNN during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2017, it was announced the show was moving to its sister/smaller network HLN due to CNN's breaking news coverage stories often interrupting the show and HLN being more of a fit since they already has crime-programming such as Forensic Files. April of 2018 was when it was announced John Walsh and company would be moving to the Investigation Discovery (ID) channel with "In Pursuit." This is speculation on my part, but I believe The Hunt ended because John Walsh and company decided that it was best to move to ID since it was a more widely-known and viewed crime channel and would also be even more of a perfect fit with the channel's programming.
4. Don't get me wrong, I still love John Walsh and will watch any show of his, but can he please one day bring America's Most Wanted back as well?
I loved AMW as well, but sometimes things don't last. It is theoretically possible AMW could come back one day, but whatever network that airs it (if it isn't Fox bringing it back) would still need to pay Fox license fees. Since John Walsh has moved on to new endeavours (along with his son Callahan), there would also likely be a new host in this scenario.
5. How do I get my case on In Pursuit (or insert show here)?
From what I've seen so far, "In Pursuit with John Walsh" seems very responsive on Facebook to both public and private requests:
m.facebook.com/InPursuitwithJohnWalsh/?rc=p
A few notes though from what the format seems so far- which is two fugitive segments (along with 2-3 brief 15 seconds of shame profiles) and two brief missing children cases an episode. There are 12 episodes this season which means roughly 24 of each type of case this season. John Walsh has stated in interviews that he unfortunately has to turn down hundreds of cases a week because so many of us need help.
-I am not saying this to sound callous or uncaring, but if your case is a missing adult case and/or an unsolved murder with no known suspect case or another type of non-fugitive or non-missing child case (such as believing your loved one's suicide was really a murder or investigating corruption in your town) you are likely better off looking elsewhere for help as those types of cases don't seem to fit the format of the show.
Don't get me wrong, I would be contacting everyone I could if I were you (and probably not to your extent but I have somewhat been in your shoes before), and by all means contact John Walsh as well. It is just you should not rely on only John Walsh and put all your eggs in one basket and you should contact ANYBODY you can think of in the hope one pays off.
I do have some suggestions if your case doesn't fit the format of a fugitive show. Unsolved Mysteries still takes case requests at their website and they still do YouTube stories. News magazine shows such as Dateline NBC, 20/20 etc... have also forayed into unsolved true crime cases lately. I would also look up/google "true crime podcasts" to find the most popular ones gaining steam. (Podcasts have become extremely popular and have helped solve a few cases lately!). Also the ID channel itself does unsolved cases as well so even if not In Pursuit, I would contact the ID channel itself as perhaps there is another show they could place your case on.
As far as how In Pursuit picks their cases, getting your case on the show even if it is trying to find a known suspect that harmed you or a loved one would still be difficult as a lot of fugitives chosen to be profiled seem to come at the request of the U.S. Marshals and/or FBI, however, a lot of cases also seem to be chosen from staff research from In Pursuit's production company. (They scour the web looking for cases they think would fit the show). I also know family members of victims who have gotten their cases on these shows through their tremendous effort mainly via social media.
So if your case is trying to bring a fugitive to justice for what they did to you and/or loved one, it is still possible for you to get your case on the show. However, you should also keep in mind there are still thousands of fugitives out there and only 24 full segment cases a season (so far), so some of the aforementioned advice for other types of crime cases could apply here as well.
So as far as fugitive cases go, I would recommend getting as many friends family members etc... to contact the show or the ID channel since seeing that kind of dedication to justice would likely have an impact.
Also if possibly asking your local law enforcement and/or Prosecutor's Office handling the case to contact ID would in my opinion be another good angle to go with.
And of course, we can also profile your case at amwfans.com! We'd just need an article or some other kind of proof that it's an actual case, with a contact point (either mentioned in the article or elsewhere) of what police or Crime Stoppers line people should call/email if they have tips.
6. How do I obtain old episodes of America's Most Wanted?
To make a long-story short, old episodes of AMW, especially pre-2000's episodes are extremely difficult if not impossible to find online, likely due to Fox's license fees and copyright laws. However, I created for a subforum for anyone who still wants to take a chance and ask, along with an advice thread going into more detail on this aspect (which you should read first):
Advice thread: amwfans.com/thread/4826/read-episode-request-guidelines-advice
Episode request section: amwfans.com/board/56/true-crime-episode-segment-requests
7. How do I find out if a fugitive has been captured or a case has been resolved?
This site tries it's best to keep with fugitive cases and other crime stories and we have a captured section which shows fugitives captured from AMW, The Hunt (and hopefully soon In Pursuit).
If a fugitive is on the non-capture portions of this site, chances are it is still an active case. Admittedly, it was a few years after we started, but as of mid-2014, I personally started double checking warrants or court searches to make sure a fugitive is still wanted. Admittedly, some fugitives I just use common sense with, if it was a high publicity case even if I can't find a warrant, common sense would tell me the fugitive is likely still at large. But the requirements to add a fugitive to this site are a bit higher now. You can always call your local police station to ask as well. (Although you probably couldn't do that anonymously).
Sometimes a fugitive is captured or another case is resolved and for some reason there is a little media attention on it. This site can't guarantee current accuracy of all the cases. But if you have proof of a capture or case resolution (for example, sometimes if a fugitive is captured in Mexico sometimes there's an article, feel free to send it to us.