America's Most Wanted, the show that profiled criminals on the run for 24 years, has been canceled

America's Most Wanted, the show that profiled criminals on the run for 24 years, has been canceled in a cost-cutting move, Fox announced Monday.

The show, hosted by South Florida victims advocate John Walsh, has been a staple of Saturday night TV since 1988. It has helped capture more than 1,151 fugitives nationwide, including 134 in Florida cases, according to Avery Mann, the show's publicist.

In the biggest local case featured on the show, a Miami man accused of killing four people during a family gathering in Jupiter was arrested following a tip from an America's Most Wanted viewer.

Paul Michael Merhige is charged with killing four relatives, including 6-year-old Makayla Sitton, on Thanksgiving Day 2009.

Following a monthlong nationwide manhunt, he was arrested in a hotel in the Florida Keys after the owners saw a promo for the show featuring Merhige's photo.

When police moved in, he was watching the show's episode about himself.

To Makayla's father, Channel 5 videographer, Jim Sitton, the cancellation is "a horrible decision." He said John Walsh accomplished something no one else could in the weeks following his daughter's murder.

"In our case, nobody had any idea and not one clue as to the killer's whereabouts. Only a show and a person like John Walsh had the national exposure that could reach out and put the word out nationwide," Sitton said.

More than 20 Palm Beach County cases have been featured on America's Most Wanted, which Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said has helped solve numerous crimes.

"It was a real valuable tool to get information out and help us profile cases," Bradshaw said "I've known John Walsh for about 25 years. They were always about doing the right thing."

Local crimes featured on the show include the "thuggin' to get money" case of eight men arrested earlier this year in the murders of three people, as well as attempted slayings and home invasions.

Another was the death of suburban Lake Worth grandmother Henriette Celestin, who was raped and killed in her home in 2002. Her former neighbor was arrested in the crime last year.

Despite repeated airings, two high-profile area cases have never been solved. There have been no arrests in the death of Nancy Bochicchio and her daughter, Joey, murdered outside Boca Raton's Town Center mall in December 2007.

Nor has anyone been charged with the shooting death of Broward County sheriff's Sgt. Chris Reyka, a Wellington father of four who was killed while on duty in Pompano Beach in 2007.

This wasn't the first time Fox announced America's Most Wanted's cancellation.

In 1996, the network said it was going to shutter the show, until an outpouring from outraged law enforcement officers, judges, and even politicians persuaded Fox to return the program to its lineup.

The issue isn't the popularity of the show, which has 5 million viewers each week. It's the cost of production, said Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. Fox plans to run quarterly America's Most Wanted specials after the show goes off the air this fall.

"It's been an important show for us historically. We haven't made money on the show in quite awhile. It wasn't particularly viable. We wanted to keep the franchise alive. John (Walsh) is having conversations about ways to keep the series alive."