I like Mike a lot.
However, my attitude wrt the Communist News Network will prevent me from viewing his show.
TV Guide Magazine: You had a great run with Discovery. Why did you leave?
Mike Rowe: A couple of things happened. With respect to Dirty Jobs, we did 300 jobs and we shot in all 50 states. We were getting to the point where people wanted the show to get bigger, and honestly, I’m not interested in big shows. I didn’t want to do a special episode of Dirty Jobs with Gwyneth Paltrow or John Stamos in the sewer. I just didn’t. The show is about anonymous people in towns you’ve never heard of doing things you didn’t know existed. I didn’t want that to fundamentally change.
TV Guide Magazine: Was Discovery clamoring for that?
Rowe: It wasn’t just them. It was the industry. And that is the second point. I felt like I was in a place where nonfiction TV doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. Unscripted no longer means without a script. I looked at Duck Dynasty and Amish Mafia and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and all the hit shows that were coming out of the nonfiction space — they had writers’ rooms. So, between that trend in nonfiction and the fact that I was in season eight of a show that was, frankly, physically killing me, I had what felt like a logical conclusion.
TV Guide Magazine: You’re uncomfortable with the fact that the reality genre is less real and more scripted.
Rowe: That’s entirely true and I’ve never been shy about it. I couldn’t sell Dirty Jobs today. In fact, I took Somebody’s Gotta Do It all over the place. And people were interested, but the thing I ran into again and again was the same question, ‘Well, how is it going to end? How will each segment end?’ and that question made it very clear to me that the level of desired certainty in nonfiction programming was fundamentally at odds with the kind of show that I wanted to do. I randomly ran into [CNN president] Jeff Zucker on his first day of work and we had a similar conversation. And he said, ‘Well seriously, what do you need?’ And I said, ‘Honestly, an hour of primetime, some jet fuel and a small crew.’ And he laughed and said, ‘Well, I can do that.’ Right now news has more in common with traditional nonfiction programming than most people who produce nonfiction programming.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Mike-Rowe-CNN-1087891.aspx