''Parco P.I.'' is a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

program that aired on

Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cover ...

for two seasons and 26 episodes. The series is about the cases of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...

Vincent "Vinny" Parco, his daughter Dani Parco, his twin sons Chris Parco and Vincent Parco Jr. and a number of the female investigators who work for the firm. Parco was already well-known for being hired to use attractive women who would tempt husbands whose wives suspected them of infidelity. Its first episode aired on August 28, 2005, and the final episode was aired on October 27, 2006. Once Time-Warner moved forward with purchasing the remaining 50% of Court TV, owned by Liberty Media Corp. in 2006, the reality show was cancelled. This was due in part to the revamping of the network, and their plan of moving away from 'reality' shows to focus on more unscripted content. This also prompted the network's name change from Court TV to

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

as well as the roll out of their new slogan; "Not Reality. Actuality". In 2012, the New York Daily News called the series 'a failed reality show. In 2025, in a now-viral video, an intoxicated woman berates an Uber driver while suggesting that she works for his firm.'.

Advertising

The show gained considerable attention before its second-season premiere for its

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using

billboards A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large out-of-home advertising, outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboard ...

that posed as a letter from a wife named "Emily" to her unfaithful husband "Steven". In the letter, "Emily" reveals that she knows about Steven's infidelity and implies that she will file for

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

from him. This gained the attention of

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s and mainstream media, which questioned the billboards' legitimacy and speculated as to what the billboards were really about. In spite of the ruse, the ploy to gain notoriety for the show's 2nd season was a success. The campaign as a whole was covered by over 200 news sources on-air, online and in print. Within just a few days Emily's "14 Days of Wrath" blog had received over a million hits and she was getting requests for media appearances at a national level.

References

{{Court TV 2005 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings TruTV original programming