Series Description

Dirty Jobs was a 60 minute reality series on the Discovery Channel about Mike Rowe's quest to track down every job in the United States that most of us would consider to be disgusting! He often remarked as to how these jobs are important because they are necessary in order for the rest of us to live our lives. Someone has to clean your sewage plant. Someone has to dispose of the cow guts so that you can enjoy a burger and someone has to stick their arm way up inside of a cow's vagina in order to inseminate it so that prize beef can be delivered to your local grocery store. Someone has to clean the bird poop off the park bench. Mike got right in there and joined in those dirty jobs and cracked jokes while he was participating. It's ironic as to how addictive a series could be even though its subject matter was often so disturbing.

Dirty Jobs Cast

Mike Rowe .... Host

Dirty Jobs Opening Narrative

My name's Mike Rowe and this is my job

I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.

Hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kind of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.

Now... Get ready... to get dirty!

Dirty Jobs Trivia:

Episodes of Dirty Jobs are often heavily edited due to the Discovery Channel feeling that some things are just too gross for audiences to stomach. If you want to see an example of this, watch the "road kill taxidermy" video below this trivia section.

Mike Rowe began his dirty jobs segments on a local TV program in San Francisco, California titled, "Somebody's Gotta Do It". Rowe got tons of letters from shocked viewers after his segment on artificially inseminating cows. That wasn't a bad thing for Rowe though. Lots of viewer response even though it might be negative is often what networks are looking for so Rowe sent a video of that segment to the Discovery Channel and the rest is television history!

Dirty Jobs generated a "spinoff series" when Billy Bretherton appeared on episode #8, "Vexon" and episode #28, "Termite Controller". Of course, the series we're talking about is "Billy the Exterminator".

If you haven't seen Dirty Jobs you would probably still recognize Mike Rowe. He is on television numerous time each day as the latest spokesman for Ford in their commercials. During episode #55, "Billboard Installer", Mike made a tongue-in-cheek reference to his commercials when he said that he didn't know much about the advertising business. In the background was a billboard that he had just helped to put up with a Ford advertisement on it.

While you might find it hard to believe, Mike was an opera singer before becoming the host of Dirty Jobs. During episode #34, "Fuel Tank Cleaner", he asks a woman making a candy called "opera fudge" if she ever sings opera while making it and then he starting singing something in Italian. During episode #47, "Poo Pot Maker", Mike is paddling in a farm pond full of poop and starts singing like a Venetian gondolier with the lyrics, "O Sole Mio - Don't know the words - I've paddled for hours - In ponds of turds". Yes. He's a very funny guy!

For the ninth very short season, Mike Rowe took this series to Australia and the title of the show was retitled, "Dirty Jobs Down Under".

The production of Dirty Jobs was abruptly halted after only four episodes had been filmed even though it was doing fairly well in the ratings. While the Discovery Channel made no official announcement as to why the show was cancelled, Mike Rowe did announce it on his personal blog. It's likely that the Discovery Channel is making room for more of it's highly dramatic reality series like "Gold Rush Alaska", "Bering Sea Gold", "Amish Mafia" and others which have been very successful for the network.