The First 48

The First 48 follows detectives from around the country during these first critical hours as they race against time to find the suspect. Gritty and fast-paced, it takes viewers behind the scenes of real-life investigations with unprecedented access to crime scenes, autopsies, forensic processing, and interrogations.

Seasons

30

Episodes aired

608

Latest aired

S30E07

Total runtime

17d 6h

Timeline when each season aired

1. Season 1 June 2004 – November 2004 13 episodes
2. Season 2 January 2005 – August 2005 13 episodes
3. Season 3 October 2005 – March 2006 12 episodes
4. Season 4 June 2006 – December 2006 19 episodes
5. Season 5 January 2007 – June 2007 13 episodes
6. Season 6 July 2007 – December 2007 17 episodes
7. Season 7 January 2008 – January 2009 32 episodes
8. Season 8 January 2009 – April 2009 15 episodes
9. Season 9 June 2009 – September 2009 13 episodes
10. Season 10 January 2010 – August 2010 29 episodes
11. Season 11 September 2010 – October 2011 39 episodes
12. Season 12 December 2011 – December 2012 32 episodes
13. Season 13 March 2013 – May 2014 34 episodes
14. Season 14 June 2014 – May 2015 39 episodes
15. Season 15 November 2015 – September 2016 29 episodes
16. Season 16 December 2016 – August 2017 22 episodes
17. Season 17 October 2017 – November 2018 28 episodes
18. Season 18 January 2019 – May 2019 18 episodes
19. Season 19 January 2020 – August 2021 54 episodes
20. Season 20 October 2021 – September 2022 23 episodes
21. Season 21 November 2022 – September 2023 19 episodes
22. Season 22 September 2023 – December 2023 8 episodes
23. Season 23 January 2024 – April 2024 10 episodes
24. Season 24 May 2024 – August 2024 9 episodes
25. Season 25 January 2025 – February 2025 9 episodes
26. Season 26 May 2024 – August 2024 9 episodes
27. Season 27 January 2025 – April 2025 12 episodes
28. Season 28 June 2025 – October 2025 12 episodes
29. Season 29 January 2026 – May 2026 19 episodes
30. Season 30 July 2026 – August 2026 7 episodes

• 

  S01E01 Gangs of Little Havana/Execution in Coconut Grove

  June 3 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  A wall of silence from a frightened community hampers efforts to solve a brutal murder; and a mother of two is shot execution-style in her kitchen in an affluent neighborhood. In a visual style more like drama than reality show, we tail Miami homicide investigators as they race time to solve these murders. Who're the suspects? Are the detectives right? With cliffhangers at each break, both cases in this gritty episode will keep viewers guessing until the end.

• 

  S01E02 Overkill/Left for Dead

  June 10 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Miami homicide detectives race against time in the critical first hours of investigation to find the evidence necessary to charge two suspects in a brutal murder case; & police find a man who's been shot and left for dead, but with no evidence, witnesses, or even a name for their victim, the detectives have got their work cut out for them. Find out if these driven detectives can make their cases.

• 

  S01E03 Blood in the Snow/Swope Park Killing

  June 17 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  In Kansas City, an ambitious captain and two veteran detectives face their first homicide of the year and must make deals with wanted drug kingpins to find the killer of a young woman; and a female homicide sergeant and her all-male team get a tip that leads their murder investigation into a dark subculture of drugs, guns, and buried safes.

• 

  S01E04 Double Shooting on Haskell; Back Alley Revenge

  June 24 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  In Kansas City, detectives investigate a shooting death and must convince a son to give up his father; and investigate a murder in an area known for its drug problems.

• 5

  S01E05 Body in the Park / Ruby Street Shooting

  July 1 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Sergeant Irma Labrice and Detectives Leon Lubiejewski and Michael Gross don't have much time to find a murder suspect and they don't have much to go on either, as the victim's body was burned beyond recognition; witnesses to the murder refuse to talk to police.

• 

  S01E06 Killing Spree

  July 29 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Police try to convince the frightened residents of a housing project known as the "Pork and Beans" to help them track down the man who's been terrorizing the community, but after the third murder in a month, no one even calls 911.

• 

  S01E07 On Ice/Body in the Canal

  August 5 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Employees of an ice rink arrives at work only to find the door ajar and blood all over the floor. When the police arrive the overnight employee is found beaten beyond recognition and the facility robbed. Since who ever did this seemed to have knowledge detectives turn to former employees to start the investigation. In another case a woman walking by a river in Phoenix she's what she believes in a body wrapped in plastic in the water. Detectives don't have an identity, or crime scene making this a difficult investigation.

• 

  S01E08 Fire in the Rain/Family Feud

  August 12 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  A motorist discovers a man's body alongside the highway with his genitals on fire. The investigation propels detectives on an odyssey through a rowdy world of Texas prostitutes and drugs; when a hard working Mexican migrant supporting his young family is found dead in a parking lot, detectives can't find a motive. As their investigation deepens, they must navigate a complex web of family ties and loyalties to identify the killer and catch him before he flees the country.

• 

  S01E09 Desert Bones/Party's Over

  August 19 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Detectives Sallie Dillian and Cliff Jewell investigate a female skeleton found in the desert. Along with forensic anthropologist Laura Fulginiti, they work to determine who the mystery woman is. At first, they don't even know if she was murdered. But they use the scattered forensic and physical evidence to determine her identity and crack the case; an 18-year-old is shot in the head as a party of hundreds of high school students is breaking up. Because the teen is not expected to survive, homicide detectives Sandy Rodriguez and Tom Kulesa are called to the scene. Witnesses describe the shooter as a black male in a ski mask. In an intriguing development, there is a report of another non-fatal shooting that took place nearby, where the victim also described the shooter as a black male in a ski mask. Rodriguez and Kulesa must determine if the two events are related, who would have been after the victim and why.

• 

  S01E10 Wrong Side of the Tracks / At Death's Door

  August 26 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Homicide detective Mayree Morin and her team of investigators are on their way to work on a sunny morning when they are called to a brutal murder scene. A man, shot at least a dozen times assassination-style, straddles a doorway in one of the city's roughest areas. No one in the vicinity saw anything, but detectives quickly learn that an ongoing war over drug turf has recently paralyzed the neighborhood. With just hours to work with, Morin's team must move fast to land a suspect before the killer slips away; the son of a celebrated neurosurgeon is discovered near dawn, shot to death along the railroad tracks in the Overtown neighborhood. The investigation leads straight-talking veteran detective Ervens Ford and his wise-ass rookie partner Kevin Ruggiero down a shady path of halfway houses, strip clubs, and misguided wealth. The pressure is on as the detectives meticulously backtrack the victim's last steps, trying to nail down a solid lead before their trail runs cold.

• 

  S01E11 Stripper's Revenge/Dead on Arrival

  September 2 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  Hours after a jealous stripper vows revenge, her two-timing boyfriend is shot and killed. But the girlfriend is not the shooter, and it's up to Detective Tom Kulesa of Phoenix PD to unravel the mystery. And when a young father is dragged screaming from his bed in the middle of the night and gunned down in his doorway, Detective Mike Polk must figure out fact from fiction in witnesses' stories before the killers' trail grows cold.

• 

  S01E12 At Close Range/Murder in Motor City

  September 16 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  When Phoenix homicide Detective Tom Kulesa realizes a potential witness to a double murder has gone missing, he must race against time to stop another vicious killing; and in Detroit, Sergeant Jo Ann Kinney must turn to forensics to solve the murder of a man found dead in a brand new Cadillac Escalade.

• 

  S01E13 Silent Witness/Halley Street Slayings

  November 18 · 45min find the promo

  Show synopsis

  When a hard-working store worker is cut down in a hail of gunfire, veteran Sergeant Pepi Granado and his team must turn to a silent witness-- the store's video surveillance system, which caught the entire murder on tape; Sergeant Jo Ann Kinney and Detective Ed Williams tackle the case of a young couple found brutally killed in their house and learn that the victims knew their killer. They must track down reluctant witnesses deep in the narcotics game before their killer has a chance to get away.