I’ve caught a couple of episodes of Ice Road Truckers over the past few weeks… for those who don’t know, its another “hard-scrabble men doing hard-scrabble work” kind of show ala Deadliest Catch (its also done by the same production team) and it airs on the History Channel.  It chronicles the daily lives of truckers on Northern Canada’s “ice road”, who haul enormous loads of equipment back and forth between “civilization” and some super-isolated diamond mines up in the frozen north.  They call it the “ice road” because its literally made of ice - large stretches of it cross frozen lakes where there’s nothing but a couple of inches of ice holding up 20 ton tractor trailers.  The ice actually bends, buckles and cracks as they drive over it - its really incredible.  No one’s fallen through the ice yet on camera, but apparently it happens more often than they’d like. 

So you can expect that this show would have a lot of the same themes … tough men working long hours with little or no sleep, braving the freezing-cold elements to pull in sizeable amounts of cash.  For me it doesn’t have quite the same mystique as Deadliest Catch, though it does have its moments.  I guess though, its just a lot less interesting watching some guy drive a truck than it is to watch a team of 5-6 men make bait, wrangle crab pots, and pull up a new haul with no idea if it’ll be empty or full of $5000 worth of crawling-crabby-goodness.

Then, there’s Lobster Wars which - again - is made by the same production company.  This one follows a bunch of lobstermen off New England.  But whereas there’s real camaraderie amonst the men and boats of Deadliest Catch, it seems like there’s some real bad vibes between these guys.  (Hence the eponymous “Wars”).  Its a lot of the same themes as Deadliest Catch, but with a lot less danger.  Here the problems arise not from mother nature or equipment failure, but from the underhanded tricks of their fellow lobstermen.   I’ve only seen a couple of snippets of the show, though, so there may be more to it that I’ve just not seen yet.

So, what do you think?  Are either worth watching?

During this season, we’ve polled viewers and fans (Over 4,000+ votes cast!) about a variety of different questions and have seen some interesting results:

1st Poll: What is your favorite boat and crew this Season (Season 3)?

• 44% of viewers and fans said the Northwestern was their favorite crew and boat.
• The Cornelia Marie came in second with 21% of the vote.
• Vote Here

2nd Poll: What is your favorite Deadliest Catch Season?

• 60% of viewers said Season 3 was their favorite season.
• Vote Here

3rd Poll: Which crew will cash out on Top in Season 3?

• 44% of viewers believe that the Northwestern will again re-claim the top payout on Season 3.
• A close second at 40% of viewers believe the Cornelia Marie will become the new leader.
• Vote Here

What have we found?

• The Northwestern and Cornelia Marie are the stand out popular boats based on viewer voting and favoritism.

What’s left to ask?

• Plenty, look for more polls to come to see what boats you want back on hopefully a Season 4 and more interesting polls!!

Make your predictions on which crew will come out of Season 3 with the most cash in their pocket.

Let us know what you think by Commenting below!

If you’d like to tell us why, feel free to click on the Comments section below the post title.

We’d like to know your thoughts.

I have put together a poll to see what the fan’s are favoring this season with the crab boats and crew.

If you’d like to add any additional comments, please do.

If you want to read up on the boat’s crews, visit our Meet the Crews page.

You can also check out Photos of the crews at The Northwestern’s Photo Gallery.