'Deadliest Catch' fishes out captains' personal side By Cameron Glendenning,
Discovery Channel"This is real-life drama": The action of the crab harvest will again take center stage, says producer Thom Beers, but the fifth season also will delve into the sinking of the Katmai in October.
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY
Fans of Discovery's popular Deadliest Catch have grown accustomed to the habits of the ornery skippers. Their collective demeanor can be as tough to navigate as the perilous Arctic waves that smash into their weathered crafts.
Deadliest Catch has personified the hardscrabble work ethic of blue-collar professions that has been popularized by reality TV, but tonight's fifth-season opener (9 ET/PT) takes on a softer, soap-operatic tone. It examines the personal side of the boat captains and the fallout the dangerous King and Opilio crab harvests exact on fishing crews.
"This life is taking a toll on the skippers," says Thom Beers, the reality TV kingpin behind Catchand such shows as History Channel's Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers. "They're all getting older and dealing with years of stress."
Skipper Phil Harris, who escaped death after having a pulmonary embolism at the height of crabbing season last year, tries to return to helm his Cornelia Marie. But berthed at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, he awaits a doctor's call that could keep him dry-docked.
"Am I still going to be able to do this? This is my career, man," a weary, chain-smoking Harris tells a camera crew in tonight's opener. Meanwhile, sons Jake and Josh squabble over lost bait sacks that cost Harris $5,000.
Rival skipper Keith Colburn, who got into a memorable in-your-face shouting match with brother Monte aboard the Wizard last season, has a cancer scare. He nervously awaits the results of a biopsy that could sideline him for the season.
Northwestern captain Sig Hansen, meanwhile, laments whether he'll recoup the $800,000 he sank into repairs and modifications to his aging trawler.
"Everybody's got their bumps and bruises and scars," Hansen tells USA TODAY. "It isn't a gravy train." Noting the health concerns facing some of his peers, Hansen says onboard diets can be lousy and quips that his largely is a "three-c" menu: coffee, cigarettes and chocolate.
Still, a load of king crab harvested in just a few weeks can fetch $1 million, offsetting fuel, wages, insurance and other overhead costs.
Hansen, perhaps the best-known and most opportunistic fisherman to emerge from Deadliest Catch, has appeared on virtually every late-night talk show since the series vaulted to one of basic cable's biggest hits. (New episodes regularly draw more than 3 million viewers.) Fame prompted Hansen to develop a line of specialty foods, coffees and video games.
By now, the crabber also knows what makes good TV. "Having the (film crews) on the boat, I have a better feel for what they're after," Hansen says. "People are as much into the personalities as the fishing. I see that through both sets of eyes."
Health problems and dysfunctional crew families aside, subsequent episodes will have plenty of action and drama, Beers says. Upcoming shows also delve into the sinking of the Katmai, a fishing ship on which several crewmembers died last October. The Katmai was not part of the crab fleet, although a Discovery film crew embedded with the U.S. Coast Guard provided footage of the rescue and recovery.
"There's a promise of danger in a lot of these shows, but in this show, the (Katmai) is a reminder that this is the toughest, deadliest job in the world," Beers says. "This is real-life drama."
Discovery Channel president John Ford marvels at the show's staying power among viewers. "The captains and crews have become like family to a lot of viewers," he says. "But to some, these guys are like rock stars."
Deadliest Catch
By Cameron Glendenning,
ry Channel
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