Nine to screen Gold Coast Cops

In one of TV’s more surprising programming moves, next week Nine will screen Gold Coast Cops.

The series by Eyeworks Australia screened for two seasons on 10 in 2014 and 2015, occasionally attracting headlines around an assault charge, ahead of an internal review of Gold Coast police culture, and whether the series was a PR campaign for the police. In 2014 Qld Superintendent Keogh backed the show before he departed in 2015.

It’s not the first time a factual has been picked up and run by rival networks.

Territory Cops, also by Eyeworks, originally screened on Foxtel before it was picked up by 10 (and now renewed for a third season). Kings Cross ER, also by Eyeworks, began on Foxtel before Nine, as did Crime Investigation Australia (replayed on 7).

Next week The Block only screens on Sunday, so Gold Coast Cops screens in double eps on Monday night.

What will be interesting is whether the show rates higher on Nine than it did on 10’s original run….?

The Gold Coast’s newly created Rapid Action & Patrols Group (RAP) polices everything from biker gangs and street violence to drug heists and organized crime. Led by Superintendent Jim Keogh, the unit offers the community a permanent police presence on the Gold Coast. In this observational series’s first season, the team uses the latest technology to track motorcycle gangs, canine cops work alongside their human handlers, the police chase a reckless driver into the bush, a violent machete-wielding man who smashed into a convenience store must be found, and many other operations are carried out.

7:30pm Monday on Nine.