The Lifetime cable channel has picked up a 20 episode order for a 25th season of America’s Most Wanted following the unexpected cancellation by Fox for the 2011/12 season.

While it is nearly a miracle for any television series to last over two decades, the difference with America’s Most Wanted was that it actually served a purpose, capturing over 1100 fugitives over the course of its run.  While the show was canceled, Fox did agree to keep the toll free number and website running, and since the series ended its run in June it has gone on to capture four more people due to those efforts.  ”People are still going to the site; the public has played a tremendous part in getting us back on the air,” show creator John Walsh told The New York Post.

Currently Walsh still owes four time specials to Fox as part of their cancellation deal, but it appears that those will have no impact on the new series launching.  ”Lifetime will probably repeat the show, which will up our capture count and will give more exposure to help catch these creeps,” Walsh told the paper. “They haven’t picked a night or time for the show, but they wanna go hard. They mentioned October, but we still have to saddle up.”

This is one of those shows that I may not tune into each week, but it was always comforting knowing that it was there and that they were continuing to do good in this country.  While they may not have been making the biggest money in the world from the show, I always viewed it as more of a public service, and one that made me think positively about Fox.

Guess I’ll think positively about Lifetime now …