Staying power
It goes unnoticed, but “America’s Most Wanted” is the most-watched program in its time slot on Saturday nights.
It’s also No. 8 on a much more impressive list. This Little TV Show That Could has lasted long enough to be ranked as one of the longest-running series in the entire history of prime time.
“America’s Most Wanted” began on Fox’s owned-and-operated stations in February 1988 and went national on Fox that April.
John Walsh, whose son Adam had been found dead in a nationally famous missing-child case, was and remains the host nearly 17 years later, with more than 800 fugitives captured. Families of victims, especially, trust Walsh – because he’s experienced in what they’re undergoing.
“Unfortunately, I’ve walked in their shoes, so I know where they’re coming from,” Walsh said. “The media can be brutal.
“After Adam was murdered, a lot of the media that we begged to keep Adam’s story going for the two weeks that he was missing lost interest after the first or second day. I had begged them to keep helping us look for this little boy, and, of course, when parts of him were found two weeks later – the most horrible murder – they were all camped out on our front lawn.
“It’s actually part of my deal with Fox that I’ll never do a story a victim doesn’t want me to do,” Walsh added. “We’ll never show the face of a molested or abused child. That criteria has been my standard for 17 years. And if they don’t want to say something, or are uncomfortable – this is not ‘60 Minutes,’ this is my show. If they don’t want to talk about it, it’s OK.”
The program, modeled after the BBC’s “Crimewatch U.K.,” went after FBI Top 10 wanted killer David James Roberts in its pilot, and caught him – identified by several people at a Manhattan homeless shelter.
“When it started,” said “AMW” executive producer Lance Heflin, “everyone was just shrieking in horror: ‘Oh my God, it’s vigilante TV! … “It was never that, and never turned out that.”
“America’s Most Wanted” has lasted so long, Heflin said, because its audience (some 7 million viewers a week) is so loyal: “People trust us, and they know what they’re going to get with us.”