Richland County ‘Live PD’ deputies riding fan love to NYC

Viewers of the A&E’s “Live PD” will get another helping this weekend of Richland County deputies Kevin Lawrence and Chris Mastrianni.

The two Midlands deputies are being flown to New York to talk about their jobs and ‘analyze’ the show live in real time with show host, Dan Abrams.

Both Lawrence and Mastrianni have been propelled into the media stratosphere with “Live PD” viewers and on Twitter after the caught-on-dashcam chase.

The appearance was already on the schedule, said A&E spokeswoman Kerri Tarmey.

This weekend’s appearance is a fortunate coincidence given the response to last week’s episode which zeroed in on a hair-raising chase involving Richland County Deputy Chris Mastrianni, a speeding SUV that crashed and rolled over, a fleeing suspect and the suspect’s infant daughter.

“It was the most intense thing I’ve witnessed in my career,” said “Live PD” show creator and executive producer Dan Cesareo, president of Big Fish Entertainment.

Each week, the control room in New York is monitoring live action from some 30 cameras at work with 6 different law enforcement agencies. For three hours, they are following law enforcement operations as they unfold and directing the flow of the show.

Given everything that could have gone wrong during the Richland County chase and SUV roll-over, Cesareo said the director is always able to cut away.

“You will not see anything graphic,” he said in pointing out the broadcast is on “industry standard delay,” which in most instances industry-wide prevents profanity or graphic images from making it into viewers’ homes during live events.

This weekend’s appearance by deputies Lawrence and Mastrianni with Dan Abrams in New York will give them a chance to talk about what happened and offer their insight into how events unfolded.

“It will be really nice to hear from them especially after the event last week,” Cesareo said.

Cesareo launched “Live PD” in October 2016 and announced Wednesday that the A&E cable network has ordered 100 more episodes of the three-hour per show series.

This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Richland County ‘Live PD’ deputies riding fan love to NYC."