Popular Reality TV

Deadliest Catch star and Northwestern captain Sig Hansen said he’ll participate in Dancing with the Stars next spring. The St. Pete Times’ Eric Deggans reports that “the possibility Hansen might fulfill his longtime dream of competing on Dancing With the Stars in March 2012” is “the kind of success they could scarcely have predicted when [executive producer Thom] Beers first suggested putting a film crew on their boats for the first time.” Specifically, Sig said, “So they’re looking at it for next March and I’ll do it. I think it’d be good for the brand, once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it’s fuckin’ cool, you know? Why not, you know? … I think it’d be fun. It’s just, you know, why not? I’m living life. It’s been fun and as long as it doesn’t hurt my relationship with my wife, I’m good with it.” (That quotation didn’t make the story but Deggans provided it to me from the transcript of his interview.) The interview is a hilarious read; Sig, who voices a character in Cars 2 and is going...

As entertaining and awesome as completely constructed reality shows can be, some of the best reality shows are just edited versions of a reality that would exist even if cameras weren’t there. Deadliest Catch remains the best example of this, as it proved earlier this year with its episode about Phil Harris’ death . Executive producer Thom Beers created and defined a subgenre with the show, and followed it with similar series, from Ice Road Truckers to Black Gold , that have had varying degrees of success. And certainly other shows such as Whale Wars owe something to the show, which is why it’s a gift worth celebrating during the 12 Days of Reality TV. The best of those shows and Deadliest Catch offer us access to something we’d probably never see otherwise thanks to their access, never mind the bravery and craftsmanship of the people who actually film the show and are standing on the freezing deck of a crab boat for hours and hours. The show’s Emmy loss is unbelievable . The nar...