TV Series Set in Shreveport Renewed for 2nd Season

True crime is all the rage these days.  On Friday nights, two of the big four networks air true crime mysteries.  NBC airs two hours of Dateline starting at 8:00pm and ABC carries 20/20 at 9:00pm.

There are two major cable channels dedicated almost exclusively to true crime: Investigation: Discovery (ID), and Oxygen.  This year alone Oxygen ordered up eight new true crime shows including projects from executive producers Dick Wolf, Ice-T, Soledad O’Brien and Nancy Grace.  (Dick Wolf was the creator and producer of all the Law & Order shows.)

The reason for true crime's burgeoning popularity?  Women love it and they deliver big ratings.  ID is the highest ranked cable network for women 25-54. In the past year the network has launched 13 new series to go with 16 established shows.  One of these new shows is set right here in Shreveport.

Murder Chose Me, featuring retired Shreveport Police Department homicide detective Rod Demery, premiered on ID on January 1st of this year.  The series highlights murder cases that Demery investigated and solved in stories told through the lens of the impact murder has had on his own life.  Each episode tells the story of a case through dramatic reenactments along with commentary from actual participants and Demery himself.  The show is unique in that it employs the story-telling device of flashbacks from Demery's memory of the murder of his mother when he was just 3 years old, and of the time of his brother's murder conviction in a separate crime years later.  The series is filmed in Shreveport and in Knoxville, TN.

Ratings for the show have been so good, that ID has renewed Murder Chose Me for a second season.  10 new shows have been ordered and will air in 2018.

Demery is currently a special homicide investigator for the Caddo District Attorney’s Office. In an interview with the Shreveport Times, he said,

“If I stop and think about what’s actually happening, it’s kind of mind-blowing and not something I would have ever expected,” Demery said. “It’s an incredible feeling.”