Court TV is a TV channel that is dedicated to showing court related programing. It was launched in 1991, and was the first network devoted to the courts and the court system. It is a 24 cable channel that often broadcasts live streams of criminal and civil court proceedings. It also broadcasts news related to the court system, and high profile criminal cases, as well as original and second run programing related to the court system. Since it's origination the channel has be relaunched as Tru Tv and now shows reality based programing in addition to court proceedings and court related programing.
The network is most famous for providing continuous coverage of the OJ Simson trial and the Mendendez brothers trials. It was one of the first networks to provide continuous coverage of criminal cases as opposed to shorter summaries and excerpts at the end of the day. In addition to the live coverage, the network also broadcast interviews with experts and analysts who talked about the cases the network broadcast. It has also covered numerous other well publicized, and some lesser known trials over the years, including several of Lindsey Lohan's court dates and the trial of Casey Anthony.
In addition to continuous live coverage of criminal court proceedings Court TV runs both original and accuired programming including Homicide Life on the Street, which is an acquired criminal drama and Forensic Files which is an original documentary series that focuses on criminal cases from the perspective of the court officials and criminology experts.
