True crime may have bucked the trend of overall decline in TV commissions in recent years, but shows about fraud, con artists and social media scams are on the rise rather than salacious murder cases. C21 investigates whether audiences are losing their appetite for murder.

Making films about drug cartels is one way to immerse yourself in death and murder of the most gruesome kind. Onscreen explorations of serial killers and their atrocious acts is another. Mix the two and you may reach a point where you need to take a break, or at least find another way into the true crime genre.

Dan Johnstone

Filmmaker Dan Johnstone reached such a nadir, possibly somewhere between making The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, a 2017 series for The History Channel, when he served as head of Karga Seven Pictures’ special projects division, and at the turn of the decade when executive producing American Cartel and Detective Diaries, both for Discovery+, under his own prodco Breaklight Pictures (part of the Pantheon Media Group).

“I have tried to move away from the murder [aspect], because it is so devastating. And for me as a filmmaker, it is devastating to live in it,” he says. “There is this grief that people have.”

Yet, Johnstone is all too aware of the audience’s fascination with murder: “On the other side, when you look at it as a viewer, it is like, who did it? What happened? Why’d they do it? It’s all these things that you want to generate in television.”

But are audiences’ appetite for murder – and its investigation – waning, and are other stories in the true crime genre gaining more traction? And, if so, what does that mean for filmmakers like Johnstone and for the future of true crime?

True crime shows have been relatively resilient compared to the overall decline in TV commissions since peak TV ended in 2022; while global commissions for first-run TV shows were down by about 19% in 2024 compared to 2022, crime docs saw a 2% increase in the same period, according to market research company Ampere Analysis.

But scratch beneath the surface and the data reveals that murder – considered the core of true crime – is not being served up in the same quantities as it was five years ago. Between 2020 and 2024, the percentage of all first-run TV crime docs commissioned related to murder or death dropped from 38.1% to 32.5%. Fraud, including scam artists, on the other hand, has seen an increase in the same period, from 1.6% to 2.7%, while docs related to drugs grew from 2.8% to 4.5%. Meanwhile, two other sub-genres – abuse and online/social media – both grew from 3.2% and 0.4% in 2020 to 4.1% and 3.3% in 2023, respectively, though each lost some of those gains in 2024.

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing just premiered on Netflix

Netflix

“Content relating to murder or death remains the most common sub-theme of crime documentaries, accounting for one in three of all first-run crime docs commissioned in 2024,” says Rahul Patel, principal analyst at Ampere. “However, this share is down from the 37% to 38% seen from 2020-2022. Crime documentaries relating to drugs are more common in 2024 than two years prior, as are docs following stories of fraud.”

The analysis also reveals that the UK and US are the leading markets for crime documentary commissions, with UK productions accounting for 27% of first-run crime docs in 2024, slightly ahead of the US at 26.6%.

“The BBC, 5, Channel 4 and ITV all make the top seven for the number of crime documentary commissions across 2024,” notes Patel, who adds that the overall top commissioner internationally is Netflix, while in the US it’s Investigation Discovery (ID).

Diversity in true crime
ID president Jason Sarlanis has certainly been one of the driving forces behind the trend away from murder to more diverse stories in the true crime genre, with documentaries such as Spacey Unmasked and Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.

Talking at C21’s Content London conference in December, Sarlanis said: “We’ve evolved the brand considerably in the three years that I’ve been here, and it has been reconfigured as a content engine for WBD at large in all things true crime.”

David Karabinas

Former Discovery executive, Jane Latman, who founded prodco Twist under the Wheelhouse banner in June last year, says she’s brought that ethos to her new outfit: “When I was a buyer at ID, we always talked about how do we stretch this genre? How do we make it as broad as possible?,” she says. “We’re talking about why people do the things that they do, how and why and what. These are stories of human nature, stories that are beyond murder mysteries, like cons, scandals, frauds.”

Stories of scams and frauds have always existed in true crime, but the shift towards more of them can probably be traced back to Raw TV’s 2022 feature documentary, The Tinder Swindler, for Netflix. The story about a prolific conman who posed as a billionaire playboy on Tinder, became the streamer’s most watched doc of all time within 28 days of premiering.

More have followed for the leading commissioner of true crime internationally, including 2024’s Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, also produced by Raw TV and based on a Tortoise Media podcast and, most recently, stranger than fiction feature doc, Con Mum, from UK indie prodco Forest (The Trouble with Kanye), which launched on Netflix on March 25.

“Scams are a big deal,” says Kate Harrison, president of Cream Productions, producer of returning series Fear Thy Neighbour for ID and Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot for Apple TV+. “True crime is a way bigger envelope than it was five years ago.”

David Karabinas, co-founder and CEO of true crime specialist Texas Crew Productions, says: “I used to have a quote on my board in my office that said: ‘For it to work, someone has to die’. Now I definitely feel like that’s not so much the case.”

He points to one of his company’s recent productions, How I Escaped My Cult, which premiered on Hulu in February. “On its surface, you may ask, is this really a true crime show?,” he says. “Well, every story within that cult show included a crime. There was always a crime at the root of it. The cult leader always ends up committing a crime, whether that crime is sexual abuse, whether that crime is fraud, embezzlement, theft, whatever it is, there is always still a crime there.”

And Karabinas says there’s no shortage of new shows in the works at his company that fall into either the scam or the scam/murder bracket. “I can’t speak to specifics because they haven’t been announced, but we do have shows with buyers now that combine the murder and the scam, and we also have shows that are just straight up stories about scams and busting scams.”

Focusing on drug cartels
Despite focusing on the Los Zetas, one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, financial crime is what Johnstone has managed to pivot towards instead of murder and violence in Cowboy Cartel, the 2024 documentary he exec produced and co-directed with Castor Fernandez (The All-American Cuban Comet, Brothers in Exile) for Apple TV+. “We made that about money laundering, about horse racing, about how you can use these systems in a perverse way that criminals can then make money from it. That was a different approach. For me, a much better approach,” he says.

Cowboy Cartel provided a pivot toward financial crime

Apple TV+

Johnstone has also avoided the topic of murder in Toxic, the upcoming six-part series set to premiere on ID on May 5, which he directs. Hosted by investigative journalist Elizabeth Chambers, who also executive produces, the series explores toxic relationships and includes the case of convicted conman Anthony Strangis. According to Sarlanis, “with Toxic, we aim to empower the voices of survivors and continue impactful conversations, ensuring that our No Excuse for Abuse initiative remains a year-round focus at ID, not just in October.”

Adrian Padmore is commissioning editor and VP of non-scripted UK originals at UK terrestrial 5 and Paramount+. He too is interested in exploring the crime of abuse and its impact on the survivor and points to My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage, as a show that did particularly well for 5 because it focused on the survivor. Produced by Atticus Film & TV, the two-parter reveals how Richard Spencer was subjected to 20 years of abuse by his wife through shocking footage. It has sold to over 60 markets and was also shown on Netflix via an early window.

“It did 2.4 million [viewers] on 5, and then it did over five million on Netflix,” says Padmore, who believes the show’s success was its focus on the human impact of the abuse. “What was going on for them? How were they feeling? What sort of emotions as a viewer are we connecting with in terms of their experience? I think those things are all important.”

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy, over which the disgraced rapper is suing NBC

NBC

The human impact is reportedly central to director Alex Stapleton’s as-yet untitled Netflix documentary miniseries about the sexual misconduct allegations against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, which was first announced in the autumn of 2024. Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson is executive producing through his G-Unit Film & Television banner, while Stapleton exec produces for House of Nonfiction, with Texas Crew Productions also producing.

The case has spawned multiple documentaries, including a yet to be aired untitled project for ID, and recently aired Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy, over which the disgraced rapper is suing the US broadcaster network NBC, its streaming service Peacock and prodco Ample.

Karabinas says Stapleton’s version “probably won’t come out until after the trial. [It] is going to be a very different version than maybe some of those earlier ones. People will speak differently; the story will be different.”

In a joint statement to the press, Jackson and Stapleton said: “We remain steadfast in our commitment to give a voice to the voiceless and to present authentic and nuanced perspectives.”

Sam Rowden, VP of the content group of AMC Networks International UK, says while she has explored a range of true crime sub-genres over the years for an array of British platforms including free-to-air channel True Crime, sister channel True Crime Xtra, AVoD platform and FAST channel True Crime UK and free streaming app Watch Free UK, “these have always been through the lens of murder investigations.” Meanwhile, she notes that Wrongly Accused, stands out for blending investigative suspense with social justice “appealing to today’s socially conscious viewer”.

The role of social media
Like stories of fraud and con artists, stories of abuse in true crime are nothing new, but the world of social media has provided a new space for them to thrive in, thereby spawning a growing sub-genre in true crime.

Just launched on Netflix is Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, produced by LA-based Decoy Productions. The three-part documentary explores the world of child influencers and allegations of abuse surrounding popular internet celebrity Piper Rockelle and her ‘momager’ Tiffany Smith. The show follows hot on the heels of Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, release on Hulu and Disney in February, which explores the story of popular vlogger Ruby Franke who was arrested for child abuse in August 2023.

Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke was release on Hulu and Disney in February

Disney

Dan Korn, VP of programming at Hearst Networks UK, which operates the Crime+Investigation streaming platform and linear channel, says: “There’s always been hoaxes, there’s always been scams, but social media, with catfishing and grooming, has absolutely created more and more of this kind of thing playing into the explosion of interest in true crime.”

Korn also points to the powerful impact of social media on young teens, sometimes leading to murder, as depicted in the hit Netflix TV miniseries, Adolescence. Though not a true crime drama, Adolescence is based on several real cases in the UK of young boys stabbing young girls and tackles the rising normalisation of cultural misogyny through social media and its impact on a 13-year-old boy who is arrested for murdering his female classmate. Not only has the drama sparked an outpouring of debate among the public in the UK and beyond but, according to Korn, is driving thinking among those who work in the true crime genre.

“What Adolescence has done is really important in terms of educating people about a layer of activity that goes on in social media and elsewhere, that adults and parents have no sight of,” he says. “It’s phenomenally important and obviously being part of the debate is what Crime+Investigation seeks to do. We seek to be part of that dialogue and conversation about what’s affecting the wider community.”

Although commissioned before the release of Adolescence, Crime+Investigation’s recently announced Britain’s Killer Teens led by broadcaster Laura Whitmore, was prompted by the murder of 15-year-old Holly Newton by 16-year-old Logan MacPhail and seeks to uncover the underlying reasons why teenagers commit such crimes and how to prevent them in the future. The six-part series is produced by Woodcut Media, with Whitmore serving as executive producer.

Meanwhile, through Hearst Networks’ Digital Originals, the company will later this year be launching I Made a Murderer, six eight-minute episodes in interview format giving a voice to the parents of children who have committed murder. Hosted by broadcaster Yinka Bokinni and produced by Fawkes Studios, the series will take “viewers closer to those directly impacted than ever before”, according to Sam Pearson, head of shortform commissioning and social media at Hearst Networks UK.

Padmore says the reason why 5 commissioned Prime Suspect: Hunting the Predators, a three-part series by Crackett Productions about the dark world of online predators investigated by the UK’s National Crime Agency, was because of “the question around how people get groomed [online], worries parents and all age groups.”

Kate Beal

According to Kate Beal, founder of Woodcut Media, with the framing of Adolescence, now couldn’t be a more appropriate time for a true crime show such as Britain’s Teen Killers, but she’s doubtful that the drama will spawn new true crime shows focused on this age group. “Thematically, is everyone now looking at teens and adolescents? Some probably are, but I think people are looking at that anyway. I think it was just brilliant that a scripted piece could take those themes and those stories and highlight it in the way that it did.”

Like Padmore, though, Beal believes that audiences are more engaged when the victim’s narrative is central to the story and she also believes, from an ethical point of view, it is the right approach for the producer even if it takes its toll emotionally. “We will tell the history of the killer, but we also need to honour the victims,” she says.

In the case of Murdered at First Sight, the 2022 10-part series commissioned by Sky UK, which explored stranger murders, Beal says the producer of the show “planted a tree for every victim as a way of honouring them just so she emotionally could connect with the family.” Beal says the need to connect with the victim in a senseless crime is strong, but there are also consequences to that in one’s own life.

Concerns around those impacted by true crime stories, from contributors through to production teams, is the reason why Woodcut Media was one of the founder members of the Association of True Crime Producers (ATCP) in 2023, according to Beal. Other founder members include Avalon, First Look TV, ITN Productions, Monster Films, Peninsula Television, Phoenix Television, Rare TV, Revelation Films and Title Role.

The ATCP members have all signed up to a set of guidelines, which put victims and their families at the centre of the production process and aim to enhance current best practice in duty of care. The ATCP is open to any true crime producer anywhere in the world to join. Last month, the BBC, ITV, 5, Channel 4, AMC Networks International UK, Hearst Networks and Warner Bros Discovery announced they had joined the ATCP’s new Broadcaster Advisory Council as founder members.

Reflecting on the challenges of being a true crime producer, Beal says: “We, as a company do a lot of extracurricular stuff to balance out the difficult days that sometimes people are having, the difficulties in terms of content and also the challenging schedules and budgets and the fact that we want to deliver the best we can. So, I suppose the challenge is three things: a brilliant programme that satisfies the network, a brilliant production process and then keeping everyone level and emotionally in the right place. That’s the challenge for a company like us.”