'Dirty Jobs' Canceled By Discovery Channel

The fan-favorite Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs” has been canceled after eight seasons, according to host Mike Rowe’s blog post on The Huffington Post.

“A few weeks ago, I was officially informed that ‘Dirty Jobs’ had entered into a new phase,” Rowe wrote. “One I like to call, ‘permanent hiatus.’ Or in the more popular industry vernacular, canceled … ‘Dirty Jobs’ is a very personal show, and it’s difficult for me to imagine a future that does not involve exploding toilets, venomous snakes, misadventures in animal husbandry and feces from every species.”

“Dirty Jobs” follows Rowe as he performs difficult, bizarre, dirty or otherwise unwanted blue-collar jobs. Episodes saw Rowe working as a chimney sweep, vomitologist, alligator farmer, asphalt paver and many more.

The show was initially a hit for the Discovery Channel, but over the years, ratings for “Dirty Jobs” began to decline. In an effort to raise ratings, he show’s eighth season shifted focus to Australia and was retitled “Dirty Jobs Down Under.” But Discovery stopped airing the show with little warning after only three episodes.

While Rowe admitted that his show wasn’t aways perfect, he wrote that he was incredibly proud of his work and his collaborators. Rowe also said he was proud that the show stuck to its roots instead of relying on gimmicks.

“I can’t say that 'Dirty Jobs' never jumped the shark (since I literally leaped over one in season two), but I’m proud to say it’s still the same hatchet,” Rowe wrote. “The last episode looked pretty much like the first. We didn’t become something we weren’t. We never shared the sewer with Paris Hilton, and we never invited you to ‘tune in next week for a very special Dirty Jobs.’ We stuck to the mission statement. We stayed small. We worked hard. And we had a hell of a good time. It was, as they say, a very good run.”