US TV show "Cops" cancelled over outrage of George Floyd death

One of America's longest running reality TV cop shows has been cancelled its renewal amid nationwide protest against police brutality over George Floyd's death.

US cable network Paramount said it had no plans for Cops, which first aired more than three decades ago, to return, reports BBC. 

The future of another reality ride-along cop show, Live PD, is in doubt.

The A&E cable TV network hit has been engulfed by controversy since the death of another unarmed black man who was heard pleading, "I can't breathe."

Cops ran for 25 years after first being broadcast on Fox in 1989, before it was taken up by Paramount's predecessor, Spike TV, in 2013.

Its 33rd season had been due to air on the network on Monday.

A Paramount spokesperson told US media on Tuesday, "Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don't have any current or future plans for it to return."

The show was temporarily pulled from air late last month as protests gathered pace over the death of Floyd.

Since then, some activists and opinion writers have called for cop shows to be yanked from air.

They have argued that the genre portrays police officers as action-heroes and stigmatises African-American communities.