Every season of Deadliest Catch, counted — the show has run so long its greenhorns became captains
Discovery greenlit it in 2005 as a documentary about a fishery most viewers couldn't find on a map. Two decades later the boats are still going out, and the cameras are still bolted to the rails. Here's the count, and what happened along the way.
The short answer
Twenty-two seasons, as of 2026, plus the 2005 pilot. Deadliest Catch has delivered one season a year, every year, since it premiered — created by Thom Beers, narrated by Mike Rowe, and shot in the Bering Sea across the king crab and opilio seasons. Season 22 premiered Friday, May 8, 2026, on Discovery Channel.
How the seasons break down
- Seasons 1–19 (2005–2023) — the spring era. Every one of these premiered in March or April, like clockwork, building the fleet the audience now knows by name: Sig Hansen, Keith Colburn, Johnathan Hillstrand, "Wild" Bill Wichrowski, Josh Harris.
- Season 20 (June 11 – October 2024) — 19 episodes for the milestone year, including Keith Colburn's onboard medical emergency, later diagnosed as a transient ischemic attack.
- Season 21 (August 1 – October 31, 2025 ) — 16 episodes and the latest premiere in show history, plus a move to Friday nights. The fleet pushed west to Adak Island chasing red king crab, farther out than anyone had fished in 30 years.
- Season 22 (from May 8, 2026) — the fleet relocates 225 miles as a new king crab population turns up in the north. The season carries a tribute to deckhand Todd Meadows, who died earlier in 2026.
From greenhorn to captain
Jake Anderson's on-screen debut was May 15, 2007, in a season 3 episode called "New Beginnings." He was a greenhorn deckhand on Sig Hansen's Northwestern, hired off-camera two years earlier on the recommendation of his uncle, crewman Nick Mavar. He worked up to full-share deckhand, then relief deck boss, with Hansen publicly describing him as something close to a son.
In 2015 he took the wheelhouse of the F/V Saga and captained it from season 11 through season 19. By season 21 he was running the Titan Explorer — and evacuating it after an ammonia leak.
He isn't the only one. Sophia "Bob" Nielsen and Sean Dwyer both moved into captain's chairs on camera too. Anderson's is just the arc the show has filmed from his literal first day on deck.
The spinoffs
Discovery has spun the format out repeatedly: After the Catch, Deadliest Catch: The Bait, Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove, and Deadliest Catch: Bloodline, which followed Josh Harris to Hawaii for three seasons and 28 episodes between April 2020 and June 2022.
For the record: 63 Emmy nominations and counting. Not bad for a show about the worst commute on earth.