What Would Mike Rowe Do? Find Out When 'DIRTY JOBS' Host Mike Rowe Serves As Guest Programmer Highlighting The Early Years Of The Hit Series For Destination America

SILVER SPRING, Md., Feb. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Destination America, the only network that celebrates the people, places, and stories of the U.S., invites fans to join Mike Rowe in reliving the oddest, most demanding and... well, dirtiest tasks he encountered during the early seasons as host of Discovery Channel's hit series DIRTY JOBS. Now, for Destination America, the fearless host has dug through the archives and chosen his most memorable episodes. Viewers can reminisce along with Mike in a DIRTY JOBS marathon beginning Saturday, February 16 from 9 AM – 11 AM E/P on Destination America.

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"In DIRTY JOBS, Mike Rowe teaches us that a job is never just a job but an expression of American ingenuity, tenacity, and our roots as a nation," said Marc Etkind, SVP of Content Strategy for Destination America. "Mike's all-American can-do attitude is something we value greatly at Destination America, and we're thrilled to have the intrepid host program our network."

"I can think of no better time in our history to celebrate the value of hard work and the importance of an occasional poop joke," said Mike Rowe. "DIRTY JOBS has always attracted viewers of great taste and sophistication, and I look forward to reliving with them my deeply personal collection of calamity and poor judgment. Our country needs people who aren't afraid to get dirty, now more than ever. I'm glad to see them find a home on Destination America."

Mike Rowe's schedule of most memorable DIRTY JOBS episodes is as follows:

Saturday, February, 16
Wild Goose Chase premieres at 9am E/P
Mike Rowe goes on a wild goose chase...literally!  After traveling to the Tundra, Mike joins forces with a team of workers that round up a flock of wild geese with airplanes.  After the geese are wrangled, Mike gets dirty as he swabs their posteriors in order to test them for disease.  It's an essential job that works as America's first line of defense against deadly diseases that the birds may carry as they migrate towards the other forty-nine states.  

Bologna Maker premieres at 10am E/P
A trip to Palmyra, Pennsylvania takes Mike to a bologna factory to learn what it takes to be a leading producer of smokehouse bologna. Mike performs a quick quality check before transporting the meat to the fat removal station and cuts the excess fat and clots out of the meat before sending it into the grinder, then seasoning, smoking, and packaging. Mike ends his day cleaning out the filters in the water system to prevent the sludge from traveling into the cities watch treatment system. 

Saturday, February, 23
Billboard Installer premieres at 9am E/P
An outdoor advertising company in Texas teaches Mike the tricks of the trade as he starts the day by backing up a giant drilling rig to the future home of a giant billboard.  After the drill bit is assembled, Mike and the crew start digging a hole that measures almost twenty feet deep by five feet in diameter.  Mike quickly learns from his rookie mistakes as he uses a tractor to load the dirt from the hole into an eighteen-wheeler.  After the dirt is removed, Mike and the gang use a crane to move the billboard parts into place and the construction process begins.  Mike soon finds himself in a precarious situation as he's perched over fifty feet in the air on the base of the billboard. 

Bell Maker premieres at 10am E/P
Mike rolls up his sleeves to make giant bells at the McShane Bell Foundry in Maryland.  Mixing a combination of horse manure and mud, Mike makes a mold for a bell that he later pours hot molten brass into.  Then he attempts to master the fine art of bell polishing where he learns how to make a bell shine.  After a quick lesson in bell making, Mike then moves onto maintaining a century old McShane bell at a local church.  Climbing to the top of the church steeple, Mike must watch his every step as his feathered friends left him a special treat. 

In celebration of the retrospective, fans will have the opportunity to score a digital coupon at MyDirtyJobs.com and DestinationAmerica.com to be used toward the purchase of any DIRTY JOBS cleaning product. And through March 31, My Dirty Jobs will make a matching donation of $.50 for every coupon redeemed to the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, which supports the skilled trades and the men and women who make civilized life possible for the rest of us.

As host, executive producer, and creator of DIRTY JOBS, Mike Rowe traveled the country showcasing America's unsung heroes, from landfill operators to scrapple makers to horse testers, serving as apprentice to these hard-working and skilled men and women. Since the series first debuted on Discovery Channel in 2005, it has provided a behind-the-scenes look at more than 300 dirty jobs in industries ranging from construction to sanitation to manufacturing.

About the mikeroweWORKS Foundation
As a result of his hit show "Dirty Jobs", Mike started a "PR campaign for hard work and skilled labor."  From that, the mikeroweWORKS Foundation was established to provide tool stipends, help fund scholarship programs and support other initiatives that reinvigorate trade school enrollments and industrial arts programs around the country.  Recent highlights include the establishment of a $250,000 mikeroweWORKS Foundation Educational Scholarship Fund in partnership with Scholarship America.   In addition to his foundation, Mike launched a website, mikeroweWORKS.com, the purpose of which is to call attention to the growing skills gap in the trades, aging workforce, unfilled jobs and to provide comprehensive resources for anyone looking to explore those vocations, as well as continue to focus the country on the real issues facing our trade workers, miners and farmers.  The website also includes Mike's blog, videos and photos.  www.mikeroweWORKS.com.

ABOUT DESTINATION AMERICA
Destination America is the only network to celebrate the people, places, and stories of the United States. The inclusive network targeting Adults 25-54 is available in nearly 59.5 million homes, emblazoning television screens with the grit and tenacity, honesty and work ethic, humor and adventurousness that characterize our nation. Destination America features travel, food, adventure, home, and natural history, with original series like BBQ Pitmasters, United States of Bacon, A Haunting, Cheating Vegas, and Buying Alaska. For more information, please visit DestinationAmerica.com, facebook.com/DestinationAmerica, or twitter.com/DestAmerica.  Destination America is part of Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the world's #1 nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.8 billion cumulative subscribers in 209 countries and territories.

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