Fans of the reality television show “Dirty Jobs,” which ran from 2003-2012, are ecstatic right now after host Mike Rowe announced they’re bringing the popular show back to the Discovery Channel.
Rowe is reuniting with his old crew for the four-part series “Dirty Jobs: Rowe’d Trip,” which is set to premiere on July 7. The show will feature Rowe and his old friends driving around in an RV as they fondly remember classic episodes while also reconnecting with fan-favorite participants on the original “Dirty Jobs.”
Mike Rowe Filmed ‘Dirty Jobs’ Reboot During COVID-19
Many fans were surprised to learn that the new Discovery Channel show was actually filmed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We shot it two weeks ago, which was tricky,” Rowe, 58, told the New York Post. “I’ve done a lot of Zoom TV over the last four months … but ‘Dirty Jobs’ can’t be a Zoom show. The plan was to go out into the field and pick up where we left off, but COVID made that impossible.”
“So we rented an RV and we all got tested and went out into the world,” he added. “We met in the tiny town of Templeton [Calif.], which is about 25 miles inland from Cambria on the Central Coast, rented an Airbnb, checked in for a week and went off on our different adventures — which is code for ‘misadventure.’ I did most of the behind-the-scenes shooting.”
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Mike Rowe Is Joined By His Old Friends
Joining Rowe in filming the show were producer David Barsky, cameramen Douglas Gover and Troy Paff and audio technician Chris Jones, all of whom appeared on the original series.
Rowe went on to talk about what makes this new four-part series so special:
“Over the years we did probaby 25 of these retrospectives — I would pick the theme, safety or the enviroment, for example — and we’d give you the ‘Dirty Jobs’ take on that, with a new set of wraps and looking back at the old episodes. This [special] started as that, but we added the reunion component. The [crew] all became fan favorites since we made sure they were on camera all the time — the business of shooting ‘Dirty Jobs’ became its own ‘Dirty Job.’ The fans of the show will recognize the guys and they’ll love it.”
Rowe also enjoyed reuniting with participants of the original “Dirty Jobs,” some of whom he hadn’t seen in over a decade.
“We Zoom with them as we’re barrelling down the Coast and we’re dipping into the footage,” he said. “We look back and reflect on essential work — mostly it’s a road trip at a time I think most of the country is dying to get out there.”
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Host And Crew Took Precautions
Though Rowe and the crew are in close proximity to one another, they took precautions when it came to interacting with the outside world.
“We go to an ostritch farm, buy some eggs, make breakfast and meet the ostrich farmer,” Rowe explained. “But we’re not going out into the world to do ‘Dirty Jobs.’ The fact that this wasn’t done [pre-pandemic] let me do something I don’t really think anyone else [in TV] is doing.”
“Discovery greenlit the Zoom show, and after thinking about it, the conversation was, ‘We don’t think the country wants to look at TV that reminds them of a computer — they want to see people out in the world again,'” he added. “To me, that’s worth leaning into.”
Mike Rowe Thinks ‘Dirty Jobs’ Is Still Relevant Today
Rowe also said he firmly believes that “Dirty Jobs” is more relevant than ever in the current climate.
“The headlines catch up to the themes in shows like this,” he said. “When the economy tanked in 2008, ‘Dirty Jobs’ was relevant in a way no one imagined — and it’s just happened again.”
As for what fans can look forward to in the future, Rowe said that more new episodes could be on the way.
“If you told me a year ago that we’d be shooting new episodes I’d say, ‘No, that can’t happen,’ ” he said. “I can’t speak for the network, but I think this is going to continue. It’s kind of up to the crew, too, but I just think the combination of humor and dignity and fun and relevance works.”
“By and large I think we all have the passion to go back and pick up where we left off [in 2012],” Rowe concluded. “I’m game.”
Be sure to tune in to see Mike Rowe and the return of “Dirty Jobs: Rowe’d Trip” July 7th on the Discovery Channel!
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