Deadliest Catch gets renewed for a tenth season but without the F/V Cornelia Marie

I have a few TV passions. I like Masterchef Australia (although season five so far has been very disappointing with the standard of contestant being way down on previous years). I like The Newsroom. I liked StormChasers when it was on and one of my other big loves is Deadliest Catch. I don’t fish and have no desire to ever do so but watching these crabbers go about their business in often treacherous conditions is fascinating and I’m not alone. Constantly Deadliest Catch has reigned supreme for the Discovery channel and despite no official confirmation of it being renewed, it will be returning for a tenth season in the spring with filming set to begin within the fortnight.

One of the most interesting storylines this season was clearly Josh Harris having bought back the F/V Cornelia Marie and seeing how he did as a captain. The boat was part owned by his father but after he died further filming the Harris brothers after a year employing other captain’s lost the boat and Josh and spent the past three years earning the money to buy it back, which he successfully did earlier this year.

However a couple of weeks ago he posted the following on his Facebook page:

So to all my fans that watched the show, Deadliest Catch, the Cornelia Marie, was not optioned this year so we regretfully will not be on the show anymore. Thank you for all the support we will still be fishing. Things may still get filmed but most likely not through Discovery. Sorry to let people down, things with Discovery couldn’t meet up with what we needed, so I appoligize (sic) to all but this is where we are. There may be another company this year that we go with but for now we will just fish. Jake and I love you all for your support over the years and most of all from the old man, thank you for everything!

Now of course we have no idea what the issue is that has resulted in the boat not returning to the show. The boat was one of the longest tenured boats on the show having been on the show since opilio crab in season one (only the F/V Northwestern has been with the show for every season although in the first season the F/V Time Bandit served as the main chase boat for filming). The return of the F/V Cornelia Marie was one that excited many fans so you have to believe that at this juncture it is a money issue and you never know it may get resolved between now and the time filming starts.

For now though this is a disappointing state of affairs. The F/V Cornelia Marie wasn’t my favourite boat but the storyline was truly compelling. Has Jake Harris got over his personal demons for good? Can Josh be a good captain? Will they entice Freddy back from the Wizard? As it stands we won’t know the answers to the first two although if Freddy isn’t on the F/V Wizard we’ll know exactly where he is. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what Jake Anderson does and see how Edgar and Sig get on as a primary storyline and can the F/V Time Bandit get over Mike Fourtner’s retirement?

As for the other boats I just don’t care about Junior and the F/V Seabrooke, same for Elliott on the Saga. These new boats and young captains just don’t entertain me. If the show just had the F/V Northwestern, F/V Wizard, F/V Time Bandit and F/V Cornelia Marie and left the other boats and captains I wouldn’t shed a tear. However at this point I have to go on Deadliest Catch silence until the spring so nothing is spoiled for me when the show starts. I do hope that things can change between Discovery and Josh Harris because seeing how he does with his own boat would be a driving force behind a strong tenth season of one of the most gripping and captivating shows on television.

Update 16/01/14: It looks as though the Cornelia Marie and Discovery have come to an agreement for the Snow Crab season so they’ll be back on the show for the second half of the 2014 season of the show. Great news!

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