Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Coroner’s office gets another crack at reality TV

Coroner Investigators

Leila Navidi

Coroner investigator Lara Davies takes photos of a scene with a dead body in Las Vegas.

Coroner Investigators

Coroner investigator Richard Jones speaks with responding North Las Vegas Police Officer Loran McAlister outside of the scene where a dead body was found in North Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

The Clark County Coroner’s Office is getting ready for its close-up after an agreement was approved earlier this week allowing cameras to begin filming the day-to-day workings of the office for potential use in a reality television show.

The coroner’s office’s first brush with the entertainment industry came in 2011 when producers from the Discovery Channel spent time filming at the office for a television show. No episodes of that show were ever made and the production contract expired, allowing the coroner’s office to seek a new partner in the venture.

On Monday, the Clark County Commission approved an agreement with NorthSouth Productions that will allow the company to film material of the coroner’s office and the medical examiners who work there for use in up to 10 episodes.

Coroner Mike Murphy described the series as a docudrama-style reality TV show that follows the work and personal lives of Clark County medical examiners.

“This isn’t the Snookis or the Kardashians or things of that nature,” he said. “It’s basically the workings of our office, a behind-the-scenes look at the work we’re doing to identify folks and the science behind it.”

Much of the show will focus on the different techniques medical examiners use to identify the bodies that pass through the coroner’s office, Murphy said.

Special precautions are being taken to obscure the identities of the bodies being examined by the coroner’s office, Murphy said, and any identifiable details won’t be included in broadcasts without the family’s consent.

“It’s not about the specific cases as much as it is about the work we do,” he said. “We won’t show anything about the specific case that you wouldn’t see in a newspaper article or on the TV news.”

Producers have a six-month window to film the show, and Murphy said he was unsure when filming would start. For every episode filmed, the county will receive $4,000, he said.

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