A&E's 'The Peacemaker' Looks at L.A.'s Gang Wars

Ice-T is the executive producer behind A&E's new series "The Peacemaker: L.A. Gang Wars," a look at the battle between rival gangs in South L.A.

"The Peacemaker" centers on gang mediator Malik Spellman as he looks to hammer out truces between bitter enemies. A&E picked up five half-hour episodes of the show, which premieres tonight -- Thursday, Dec. 16 -- at 10 p.m.

Here's more on Spellman via A&E:

A violence prevention counselor by day, Spellman is on a mission to bring peace to the troubled neighborhoods he’s lived in for 30 years. For the last two decades, he has dedicated his life to ending gang violence, putting it all on the line to mediate truces between adversaries sometimes separated by less than one city block.

It's not light holiday programming.