{"id":741039,"date":"2026-07-03T14:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741039\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:44:14","slug":"deadliest-catch-shocker-mike-rowe-claims-hes-owed-2-million-for-work-on-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741039\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deadliest Catch\u2019 Shocker: Mike Rowe Claims He\u2019s Owed $2 Million for Work on Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dirty Jobs<\/a> host Mike Rowe<\/a> has filed a lawsuit against Discovery, claiming that the network owes him over $2 million for narration work he did on Deadliest Catch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to People<\/a>, Rowe and his production company, Lab Rat, filed the lawsuit against Discovery Talent Services on Wednesday, July 1. The suit claims that the company breached its contract by refusing to honor Rowe\u2019s \u201cpay-or-play\u201d agreement for his work on Deadliest Catch and its spinoff series.<\/p>\n

Rowe, who has narrated the reality series since 2005, allegedly signed an agreement in 2020 that would pay him $40,000 per episode. His lawyers also claim that Rowe is to be compensated for the episodes he does not narrate. The filing notes that Rowe was not used as a narrator for five episodes of Season 21.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that episodes that aired internationally are \u201cmaterially different\u201d from the episodes aired in the United States and should be considered \u201coriginally produced episodes.\u201d Therefore, the suit states that Rowe\u2019s \u201cpay-or-play\u201d agreement should also apply to those episodes.<\/p>\n

In addition to Deadliest Catch, spinoffs include Deadliest Catch: The Bait (2013\u20132018), Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove<\/a> (2016),\u00a0Deadliest Catch: Bloodline<\/a> (2020\u20132022), Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns<\/a>\u00a0(2022), and the upcoming Deadliest Catch: Northern Edge, set to premiere in 2027.<\/p>\n

The suit claims that Rowe was not paid for 33 episodes of Bloodline, 10 episodes of The Viking Returns, and 8 episodes of Northern Edge.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

What Happened to \u2018Deadliest Catch\u2019s Captain Keith Colburn?<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

What Happened to \u2018Deadliest Catch\u2019s Captain Keith Colburn?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause DTS exercised its choice not to use Rowe as a Narrator in at least 51 episodes of Deadliest Catch spinoffs, Lab Rat is entitled to payment of at least $2.04 million,\u201d the suit states, including potential \u201cadditional payments for 12 longer episodes,\u201d plus interest. They\u2019re demanding a jury trial.<\/p>\n

Discovery has yet to comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Rowe previously filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery in June 2025, per People, claiming he was owed residuals after the company licensed the series to streaming platforms. A Discovery spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> at the time that it values its \u201clong-standing relationship with Rowe and have fulfilled our contractual obligations for royalty payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deadliest Catch, Season 22, Fridays, 8\/7c, Discovery Channel<\/p>\n

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe has filed a lawsuit against Discovery, claiming that the network owes him over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[56149,88,318477,120465,318478,94126,92],"class_list":["post-741039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-deadliest-catch","tag-entertainment","tag-lab-rat","tag-mike-rowe","tag-northern-edge","tag-production-company","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}