The Deadliest Catch

How many people died on your favorite TV show last season? Probably none. Sure, characters died, especially if your fave is Six Feet Under, but the deaths of the actors themselves? During the recent season of The Deadliest Catch, Discovery Channel’s reality show that puts cameras on six boats during the dangerous crab-fishing season in Alaska’s Bering Sea, six is exactly how many real people perished within a couple days. With huge money to be made (in 2004, the fishermen could get $4.70 per pound of crab, which was worth $66 million to the roughly 250 boats), spending a couple of weeks on the deck of a violently pitching crab boat is a great way to erase all other reality television from your consciousness. The show’s teaser says it all: “Forty-foot waves, freezing temperatures, swinging 700-pound crab pots, a nearly 100 percent injury rate … but also the chance to earn enough money for a family to live on for a year or more, for just a few days’ work.” The 10-show season is over, but re-airs have begun Tuesdays at 8 p.m. and will resume in earnest on July 26.