‘Deadliest Catch’ Star ‘Wild’ Bill Wichrowski Was Initially ‘Skeptical’ of the Show

With 19 seasons and multiple spinoffs, Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch is a reality TV institution. The show, which premiered in 2005, follows crab fishermen working in the icy and treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. The popular show reels viewers in with its unvarnished look at the rough-and-tumble world of commercial fishing. But not everyone who participates in the show was initially sold on the idea. Captain ‘Wild’ Bill Wichrowski has said that when he first heard about the series, he wasn’t eager to sign on. 

‘Wild’ Bill Wichrowski explained why he agreed to do ‘Deadliest Catch’ 

These days Wichrowski is a fixture on Deadliest Catch. But he actually wasn’t part of the show’s initial cast. He joined the series in season 6, which aired in 2010. The Great Recession had just happened, and the economic downturn prompted him to say yes to filming. 

At the time, Wichrowski was running sportfishing trips in more temperate waters in Costa Rica and Mexico. But he was in touch with his colleagues in Alaska and paying attention to the show, which had started to take off in a major way. 

“I could see how this thing was growing and the notoriety was growing and when the economy took a dip, I decided to get a hold of Discovery to see if they had room for me,” he said in a 2014 interview with A.V. Club. 

The ‘Deadliest Catch’ captain changed his mind about the show 

Wichrowski’s decision to reach out to Discovery was a shift from just a few years earlier, when he viewed the idea of a fishing-focused reality show with skepticism. He wasn’t the only one. 

“We were all kind of skeptical in the beginning about hooking up [with Discovery] except for a few,” the F/V Summer Bay captain said. “Sig [Hansen] jumped right on the bandwagon and Keith [Colburn] was not far behind. Then a few other guys got on the bandwagon.”

Wichrowski, however, was a holdout. The idea of being on TV “just didn’t hold interest,” he said. 

While Wild Bill eventually joined the Deadliest Catch cast, he said he didn’t do it because the network promised him a big payday. 

“When I signed on with Discovery, I went to Silver Springs to look through my contract,” he recalled. “One of the guys upstairs said, ‘Captain Bill, you’re not going to get rich doing this show.’ And they hate it when I quote them on that, because he didn’t lie to me there, but he said ‘you’re going to have a voice that people listen to,’ and it was true.” 

Wichrowski said his reality TV fame helped him promote causes he was passionate about, such as the Wounded Warrior Project. 

“I do this Wounded Warrior thing and I get people to donate just because I’m on the show,” he explained. “What he said was absolutely true: to have a voice that people listen to is pretty rewarding and, down the road, it might be rewarding financially.”

Deadliest Catch Season 19 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Discovery Channel. Episodes also stream on discovery+.

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