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Live PD season 4 returns Friday, but without another fan favorite

By Brittany Frederick

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA - MAY 14: (L-R) Moderator Kate Hahn, executive producer Dan Cesareo, director John Gonzalez, host Dan Abrams and analyst Tom Morris attend the Live PD FYC Screening at Saban Media Center on May 14, 2018 in North Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for A&E Networks)
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA - MAY 14: (L-R) Moderator Kate Hahn, executive producer Dan Cesareo, director John Gonzalez, host Dan Abrams and analyst Tom Morris attend the Live PD FYC Screening at Saban Media Center on May 14, 2018 in North Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for A&E Networks) /
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Live PD season 4 resumes with new episodes this Friday, but it won’t be the same as another one of the A&E show’s favorite officers has been promoted.

There’s some bad news for Live PD fans, but great news for Senior Deputy Garo Brown.

Live PD season 4 will return Friday night for its first new episode of 2020, but it will be without the Richland County Sheriff’s Department fan favorite in the lineup.

The State broke the news on Dec. 20—ironically the same day as Live PD‘s midseason finale—that Brown had been promoted to Investigator, and as such, will no longer be featured on the A&E true crime series.

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He’s the latest of several Richland County officers to be promoted during their time on the show; Investigators Kevin Lawrence and Chris Mastrianni were previously featured on Live PD when they were deputies.

This is fantastic news for Garo Brown, as viewers know he’s a remarkable officer who has been doing great work. A promotion is more than well deserved, and he’s going to keep doing great things for the people of Richland County.

However, he’ll also definitely be missed on Live PD, where his massive stature and sense of humor made him immediately popular. He earned a place in TV history for asking a suspect if that was his “licensed crack” during an arrest:

Garo Brown’s promotion also adds to a question that many Live PD fans have been asking for a long time now: Will the show continue to be entertaining when so many of the officers who made it successful are no longer involved?

A&E certainly believes that the star of the show is the format, the “live” element that can be used to follow any officers in any department. And to a certain extent, that’s true. But like any great TV crime drama, what made it the smash hit were the characters—or in this case, the real officers.

Live PD season 4 still has some wonderful officers featured, including Brown’s colleagues Danny Brown (no relation), Addy Perez, and Mark Laureano. But four seasons in, for a variety of reasons, we’re without Lawrence, Mastrianni, James Craigmyle (Greene County), Jill Marshall and John Curley (Warwick), James Casey (Arizona), Denver Leverett (Jeffersonville), Darrell Ross (Tulsa) and Andrea Zendejas (El Paso), just to name a few.

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And the show hasn’t been the same. It used to be that as new departments came in, new stars emerged; Warwick wasn’t an original department, for example. But that hasn’t quite happened as much as it used to. So without the officers that audiences look forward to seeing every week, will there be as much excitement around the show?

We’ll find out in 2020. The good news is Live PD‘s latest exit is for a very good reason—and we can always hope that Garo Brown returns for a one-off guest appearance or pops up helping on a call someday.

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Live PD airs Fridays and Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on A&E. Follow us on Facebook for the latest on true crime TV.

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