WISN-TV replacing Movies! channel with Justice Milwaukee

Channel 12.2 is swapping just movies for justice. The over-the-air channel, operated by WISN-TV (Channel 12), will begin airing Justice Milwaukee, a channel focused on crime and investigative programming with a public-safety component, on Sept. 1. It will replace the Movies! channel, a 24-hour movie outlet.

Justice Milwaukee, the local version of a national broadcasting outlet The Justice Network, will inherit 12.2’s cable TV slots in the Milwaukee area — Channel 985 on Spectrum and 180 on Charter.

On its website, the Justice Network describes itself as “a 24/7 broadcast television network that entertains and informs its viewers with gripping crime and investigation programming while making communities safer.”

The latter includes a “public-service initiative” that provides safety tips and helps, the channel says, “catch fugitives (and) find missing children” with help from viewers’ tips.

Programming is a mix of original shows, such as “Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer,” and shows like “Cold Case Files,” “Forensic Factor” and “I Killed My BFF.” John Walsh, longtime host of TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” is the network’s spokesman and chief on-air talent.

This won’t be the first time the Movies! channel has been bounced.

The channel, a partnership of Weigel Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations, first aired in Milwaukee on Weigel’s Channel 49.3 in the summer of 2013. A year later, it moved to Channel 12.2.

No word yet on whether Movies! will find another new broadcast home in Milwaukee.