Story on JAG's misrepresentations.

When is Ice Truckers on? I was watching Dirty Jobs repeats last night, and there were enough promos for me to be intrigued.

Also a reminder: new Dirty Jobs tomorrow night!!!1!

Thanks for the reminder, Theo! I have missed me my Mike Rowe.

Thanks, Kristen.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is their "Hot 100" (or whatever they're calling it this year) issue. Right smack in the middle (around #53 or so) is the Discovery Channel Tough Guys--Sig Hansen and Phil Harris from Deadliest Catch, another guy who I can't think of off-hand, and Mike Rowe. They would have added the Man vs. Wild guy, but he was climbing Mt. Everest when they did the photo shot.

They would have added the Man vs. Wild guy, but he was climbing Mt. Everest when they did the photo shot.

Ugh. I *hate* the Man Vs. Wild guy. He's a dangerous idiot, who gives bad advice, and has a full camera and sound crew around to help him out if he needs it.

I like Survivorman. He gives solid, life saving advice, and when they send him out to survive somewhere, he packs in his own cameras and sets up his own shots, i.e. NO CAMERA CREW.

I just looked up the article at ew.com, and they've got some additional stuff that wasn't in the magazine. (The guy I couldn't remember was the Survivorman guy--Sean's comment about no camera crew made me remember him.)

They're not actors, but the tough guys behind three of the Discovery Channel's most intriguing series are no less entertaining to viewers, who tune in to watch them cope with the world's harshest environments (on Survivorman), navigate treacherous Alaskan waters (on The Deadliest Catch), or get just plain nasty (on Dirty Jobs). Here, in an online extra interview, the brave men behind these adventure shows talk about facing down Amazonian jaguars, working with broken bones, and very surprising past jobs (at QVC?!?).

LES STROUD, SURVIVORMAN

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In one episode of Survivorman, you suggested that your producers wouldn't mind too much if you died while filming an episode. How much of a joke was that?

LES STROUD: Ask my producers! I think they'd wring their hands [with delight] at the thought of how much they'd be able to sell the show for after that! No, that was tongue-in-cheek. But in reality, in terms of dramatic television, if I actually did fall into real peril it would, in their eyes, make for better TV. Not in mine.

There is a new season of Survivorman starting on Aug. 10. What can we expect?

Well, you get a surprise ending in the Amazon jungle.

Can you give a hint?

I get chased out by a 250-pound jaguar.

What do you regard as the essential piece of survival equipment?

For me, a solid knife or a multi-tool is an obvious given. BUT I still really like a surefire way to get a fire going. Even in the desert, to me, that is Number 1. Because, if you have a fire going, it's such a psychological boost and you can deal with everything else later.

In your youth you tried to make it as a professional musician. Which is more treacherous — the Amazon jungle or the record industry?

Oh, the record industy by far. There's way more snakes.

What's the worst-tasting animal you've ever eaten?

A turtle in the Georgia swamp. It was just kind of rank. It tasted not nice at all. Surprisingly one of the nicest things to eat is snakes. Snakes taste great.

Please don't say they taste like chicken.

No, they taste like snake.

Do you ever watch Survivor and think, ''Pussies!''?

Yep.

PHIL HARRIS and SIG HANSEN, THE DEADLIEST CATCH

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Alaskan crab fishing has this reputation of being the most dangerous job in the world. But how hard is it really?

PHIL HARRIS: Guys think that they can do that job. And 99.9 percent of the people can't. The last guy I hired, he was giving me this spiel about how tough he is and the whole bit. And then we got out there and he crawled up on his hands and knees to the wheelhouse, big tears running down his face, and he said, ''Get the Coast Guard out to pick me up — I'm gonna die.''

And how demanding are your own responsibilities as captain?

It's like, if you make a mistake in your job right now — say you screw this interview up — what's gonna happen? Your boss is gonna say, ''Hey man, you really f---ed this thing up, why don't you do it again?'' I go make a mistake and somebody gets either hurt or killed. There is zero room for error. You have to really, really concentrate and know what you're doing. You don't have the luxury of screwing up.

Have you been injured a lot while fishing?

I broke my back in two places, I broke both arms, I broke my ankle and my toes, my wrists, you name it. The only thing I haven't broke basically is my neck.

What do you regard as the essential piece of survival equipment?

A survival suit [combination flotation device and thermal body protector]. That's mandatory. But when I started fishing we didn't have survival suits. You were really a tough guy then. Because the guy running the boat told you, ''Hey, if you break your arm, there's 50 guys at the dock that want your job.'' So, you'd fish with a broken arm. Back then it was a lot (continued...)

( continues...) tougher than it is now. There's a different breed of kids now that are coming up doing this. Everybody's sue-happy these days. Back then we didn't sue boats. You got hurt, you just lived through it. I cut the end of my finger off. Well, so what? You go and get it worked on and you lose the end of your finger, big deal. Let's go to work. Nowadays, the kids are gonna start a lawsuit and make a big deal of it. They're not as tough as they used to be.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What effect has the success of The Deadliest Catch had on your life?

SIG HANSEN: Everywhere I go, people don't even ask me if I'm Captain Sig. They just walk up and go ''Hey, Captain, can I have an autograph?'' That blows me away. And I've got a thick stack of résumés from people who want to go [fishing] for free — from doctors to lawyers. You name it. But I don't want a crew made up of doctors and lawyers. I want the crew I have.

Plus, you have your own website where fans can buy thongs emblazoned with the phrase ''Can't find 'em, grind 'em!''

The people who do the site said, What do you want on there? And I said just be creative. I gave them some slogans and they went and ran with it. It was quite a surprise to me to see [the thongs] on there — I get a kick out of it.

Are they hot sellers?

I think the T-shirts and the mugs are the hot sellers. But we've sold a few thongs.

MIKE ROWE, DIRTY JOBS

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Is it true that you were almost the onscreen host of The Deadliest Catch rather than just the narrator?

MIKE ROWE: I worked on the boats and I hosted the first season. And, when we were nearly complete, the network called and said, ''Look, we're going to go ahead and do Dirty Jobs, congratulations — but you got to pick one. Because they're gonna be on the same night and we can't have you telling us stories about six dead fishermen on camera and making a fart joke with your arm in a cow's ass.''

What's been your dirtiest dirty job?

For pure disgust, it was probably removing a lift pump out of a waste water treatment plant. Normally, after the crew and I have a day out, we'll sit down somewhere and have a beer. We couldn't even talk to each other after this. I was, like, ''Guys, I'll see you around.'' We just went home and tried to forget what we'd seen.

You used to work at QVC? What was that like?

The ultimate dirty job. It's almost as if I sold out before I had any success to compromise. It's odd — today I'm the spokesman for Ford and I have this hit show in 128 countries. And it's weirder than people think. I lecture now at Fortune 500 companies. I go to universities and talk about the changing face of the proletariat in modern-day workplaces and how technology has fundamentally changed the basic sense of what work looks like. You know, people pay me to pontificate on all of this s---! I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. I just can't believe somebody hasn't called me out for being an imposter yet. People listen, God love 'em. But then, I do have 150-plus stories to back up any harebrained point I might care to make.

How many different types of animals have you had your fingers on and/or inside over the last couple of years?

I don't want to overstate it, but... a lot. Most recently, in Montana, I castrated a yak. A yak, for God's sake! So it's getting a bit more esoteric. We've done 152 different jobs, and animals have been the star of the show, for better or worse.

So who has the most dangerous job out of Les, Sig, Phil and you?

An actuarial accountant would say Sig and Phil. A survival expert would probably say Les. But, all modesty aside, nobody is as unqualified to do the job at hand on a daily basis as me. So, I have the most dangerous job! I'm on the crab boat or the oil rig — I just don't know what the hell I'm doing! I'm a lumberjack and I'm NOT okay. So I'm going with me.

I don't want to have Mike Rowe's babies, but I wouldn't mind practicing a few times with him. Especially if he sings.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm NOT okay

Mike is adorkable.