Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Man soap alert: All (junior) hands on deck as Deadliest Catch returns for a 6th season to Discovery Channel in September's ''Life on the edge'' month.


The stormy sixth and latest season of Deadliest Catch will be back on Discovery Channel (DStv 121) in September in South Africa - a month which Discovery is billing as their ''Life on the edge'' month.

''September sees the return of our biggest franchises and our biggest shows,'' says Paul Welling, the vice president head of channels, emerging markets for Discovery Networks' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. ''The latest Bear Grylls adventure will be back in September with the 5th season of Ultimate Survival, our continuing man soap Deadliest Catch is back for the latest 6th season and we have two brand new series as well. Bear Grylls is also in Worst Case Scenario which is a new show, and Surviving Disaster.''

I asked Paul Welling why he's using the brilliant term ''man soap'' referring to Deadliest Catch which revolves around cameras capturing the drama filled life-or-death jobs of five king crab ships, their skippers and crew in the Bering Sea.
''When I use the word 'man soap', its in the sense of the success of hit Discovery shows such as Deadliest Catch and Swamp Loggers,'' says Paul Welling. ''Men I think - and I'm generalizing - watch TV because they primarily want information, facts and drama. For me Deadliest Catch does two jobs. The men come to it for the information and the high end drama, where women like the backstory and the storyline. The man soap element of Deadliest Catch is that its so riveting that it keeps viewers coming back again and again, where the mesmerizing story works like a soap.''

In the sixth season of Deadliest Catch viewers will get to see how Captains Phil and Sig's experiment trading junior deckhands turns out - and real-life tragedy strikes the crew of the Cornelia Marie when somebody dies.