Mike – OMG, I just saw a promo for the new season of Deadliest Catch and you are SO YOUNG! I never knew you were actually in the show. Why aren’t you still? Congratulations on 20 years!
Denise Rigel
Hi Denise,
Yeah, I saw that too. 20 years. Don’t they go by in a blink?
The story of why I’m not the host of Deadliest Catch begins with the fact that 20 years ago, Dirty Jobs was not yet a hit on Discovery, and the network didn’t really know what to do with me. Back in 2004, the pilot episodes for DJ were considered to be “off-brand,” and Discovery had no plans to take the show to series. They liked me, though, and started sending me around the world on a series of expeditions. One of those trips was to a place called Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to bear witness to life on a crab boat. Well, bear witness I did.
I was up there in October of 2004, hosting a show that was not yet a show, trying with the producers to figure out if we were filming a documentary, a reality show, a competition show, or a mini-series. It still wasn’t clear three months later, in January of 2005, when I returned to host the snow crab season. That was the year that Deadliest Catch, tragically, lived up to its name, when six men died in the course of filming the show. And that’s when everyone stepped back and said, “Wait…what is this thing, exactly? How can so much danger be an everyday part of getting a job done?”
Later that year, Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs both went into full scale production, and cable television was forever changed. That’s not hyperbole. The number of work-themed shows that evolved directly from the success of those two shows is stunning. Discovery, quite wisely, determined that Catch needed a narrator, not a host. Thus, all of my on-camera stuff was cut from Season 1. I was, however, invited to narrate the show, which I was honored to do. In fact, I’m headed to the studio right now to do a few more episodes for Season 20, which premieres tonight at 8pm, on Discovery. Check it out, and be reminded once again of a great and abiding truth, proven every year now for the last two decades – you can’t script The Bering Sea.
A big thanks to the captains and their crews, for sharing their world with the rest of us. And to all of the producers and cameramen who made it happen. And to Discovery, for giving us a home. It’s a hell of an accomplishment.