‘A
merica’s Most Wanted” turns 1,000 tomorrow.
For a TV show to survive long enough to make 1,000 episodes is a rare thing.
But host John Walsh yesterday recalled the time “AMW” was canceled — yanked off the air for good — in 1996.
Then something even more rare happened, after a month and half — and unprecedented public outcry — Walsh was
uncanceled.
“This was a new network president who came from HBO and I think he thought maybe they could do something better,” Walsh told The Post yesterday.
He planned to replace “AMW” with sitcoms.
“My first thought was, ‘Where will victims go?’ ” Walsh says.
“I’ve learned that we are the court of last resort. Where do cops who’ve hit a wall with a cold case go? Where do people go to get justice?”
Governors, congressmen, viewers and cops — especially cops — buried the network in letters and phone calls.
“We were the shortest canceled show in the history of television,” Walsh says.
Now, “AMW” — in its 22nd year — is among the longest-running primetime programs in TV history.
In recent years, other networks have tried to lure “AMW” away from Fox.
It is not the biggest ratings-buster on TV, but it gives a network something to brag about.
Walsh went to the White House on Wednesday to interview President Obama on the occasion of his anniversary (the interview airs tomorrow night at 9).
Initially, Walsh said, he figured he’d be getting a “shout out” from the president as an acknowledgment of “AMW’s” milestone.
To his shock, he found the Blue Room prepared with two chairs for a face-to-face meeting.
“It wasn’t a grip-and-grin or a photo op,” said Walsh, who has met five presidents but says he’s never been given the time that Obama granted this week.