Deadliest Catch (2005–)

What is Deadliest Catch About?

Forty-foot waves, 700 pound crab pots, freezing temperatures and your mortality staring you in the face…it’s all in a day’s work for these modern day prospectors. During each episode we will watch crews race to meet their quota and make it home safely.

Premiering on Discovery Channel in 2005, Deadliest Catch is still going strong with 21 seasons to boot. At the centre of this long-running reality series are crab fishermen. Amidst the unpredictable dangers of the Bering Sea, Deadliest Catch’s workers battle extreme odds during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons.

As per the title, the lives of the fishermen featured in Deadliest Catch are always in peril with gale-force winds, freezing temperatures, and heavy equipment making their day-to-day during peak seasons beyond arduous. Despite crab fishing established as one of the deadliest professions, the fishermen of Deadliest Catch aren’t ones to surrender.

The appeal of this program comes from the high-stakes action and adventure evident in every episode. The camaraderie between captains and crew members offers tender moments, while rivalries among captains make for compelling drama.

Crew Spotlights

• Discovery Channel voice artist Mike Rowe narrates the action for North American audiences. In the UK, it’s Bill Petrie.
• Mike Rowe is also the host of another Discovery program, Dirty Jobs.
• In an episode from season 4, Wizard captain Keith Colburn had a heated argument with his brother, Monte, during which he asked the camera crew to stop filming. While the crew listened, the brothers forgot to turn off their microphone. The quarrel was recorded and featured in season 4, episode 14.
• In season 5, crew member Jake Anderson had to be informed of his sister’s death. The camera crew on the Northwestern was then asked to not film the exchange.
• In one of the show’s most shocking moments, Captain Phil Harris requested for the cameras to keep rolling as he suffered a stroke. He spent 11 days in the ICU before passing away on 9 February 2010.

Interesting Facts

• Deadliest Catch is an award-winning series, receiving 16 Creative Arts Emmys out of 52 nominations. Reality shows don’t often win awards, making this a remarkable accomplishment for the series.
• The cinematography is not your usual reality show quality. It’s actually excellent; in fact, Deadliest Catch has won the Emmy for cinematography numerous times.
• The show has tens of thousands of hours of footage. The final cut in every season is only around 20 hours of the original footage.
• The amount of profanities in the show is high that producers have to use other censoring methods for parental guidance ratings. For instance, instead of the conventional “bleep”, they use sound effect.
• Captain Elliott Neese was fined $3,000 for catching undersized crabs. In Alaska, the legal size of red king crab for fishing is strictly regulated.