Mike Rowe is ready to do some dirty work again. The popular TV host, podcaster, and commentator, along with the entire original crew of Dirty Jobs, is back on their original TV home on the Discovery Channel for a special four-episode revisit, Dirty Jobs: Rowe’d Trip.
The original Dirty Jobs was a short segment on CBS News that Rowe drummed up, inspired by the work his electrician grandfather performed. It was meant to be a salute that expanded into something much more. It struck a chord with so many and by 2004 Dirty Jobs became an incredibly popular show on the Discovery Channel. Even when it was cancelled in 2012 after more than 300 episodes, reruns continue to entertain and inspire. As this piece in Southern Living explains, "The appeal of the show could be driven by the charisma of its host, or the twinkle in his eye, but mostly it was a hit because it celebrated so many Americans who are rarely celebrated." Rowe noted “the whole point of Dirty Jobs was always to shine the light on somebody who was out of sight and out of mind and remind the country that they’re there. And that they’re connected to us.”
Especially with the COVID-19 epidemic, the timing seems appropriate. Rowe was “realizing that Dirty Jobs had been the granddaddy of essential working shows. And suddenly essential workers were headline news.”
They talked about making it a show via Zoom, like everybody else doing remote video calls for their jobs, but Rowe said, "If I am gonna look back at Dirty Jobs that’s just not the kind of show that should come to you from the safety of a bunker, in my home. I didn’t want to be reckless, or careless, or irresponsible, but I also didn’t want to be cowering,” he said.
“We’re living in a time now where everything feels unfamiliar. The lockdown, the quarantine, to the uncertainty and unpredictability of viruses and elections. It’s all so uncertain and if you can look back and jointly or collectively recall something that brought a family together or a community or a country, I don’t think it matters what it is. A book, a TV show, a movie, a song. All of that stuff is suddenly really galvanizing. And you know, people want a big bowl of warm milk. And they’ll take it wherever they can get it, even if there’s some dirt in it. Which my particular bowl has,” he said with a hearty chuckle.
The first two episodes in the reboot already aired, but you can watch them on the Discovery GO app or on Discovery Channel's website. The two additional episodes will be air on the Discovery Channel and on the app over the next few weeks.
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