Forensic Files - Production and Broadcast History

Production and Broadcast History

The series began on the TLC Network in April 1996 as Medical Detectives. Old episodes of Medical Detectives now air on TruTV under the Forensic Files label. Overseas, the show airs under these two titles, and others, on various channels in over 100 countries. It is distributed by CABLEready.

Premiering just as the O. J. Simpson murder trial had focused attention on the world of DNA and forensics, Medical Detectives became a hit. It was one of the first of the popular forensic science shows. A few years later, Court TV acquired rights to broadcast the show and it quickly became the cornerstone of their primetime schedule, increasing its annual production run to 42 episodes. The show was retained after the network was renamed TruTV in 2008.

The show was so successful that, in 2002, NBC aired it as a summer replacement series, one of the first times a show produced for cable was aired by a broadcast network in prime-time.

In 2009, truTV's sister network Turner Network Television ("TNT") began airing episodes in HD on Wednesday nights for the month of December.

The vast majority of the shows are in a half-hour format. However, some hour-long specials have been produced. Several of these have re-investigated famous cases such as The Norfolk Four, or even historic murders such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the John F. Kennedy assassination.

As of September 2012, new episodes have been filmed for the international market though at the moment there are no plans to air them in the United States, however older episodes began airing on Lifetime in September 2011 under the Medical Detectives moniker. In October 2012, HLN will air a separate set of older episodes under the title Mystery Detectives. trutv currently holds the licensing rights to the Forensic Files name and continues to air episodes from the most recent seasons during the overnight hours.