Ice Road Truckers

History Channel reality show Ice Road Truckers gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of a group of men who do a very dangerous job: hauling goods and equipment over frozen lakes in northwestern Canada. The first season of the show premiered on June 17, 2007.

A popular topic for reality shows is dangerous jobs.

Ice Road Truckers actually started with a book. Edith Iglaur’s book Denison’s Ice Road inspired a 1999 History Channel hour documentary called Ice Road Truckers. This documentary aired as part of the Suicide Mission series. The History Channel pulled out the documentary again as part of the Modern Marvels series. Ratings were high for that episode and History Channel received a good viewer response.

It was the success of another show that profiles the lives of people a high risk professions – Deadliest Catch – that prompted the History Channel to develop Ice Road Truckers into a full length series. Thom Beers, the producer and developer of Deadliest Catch, was brought on board to produce Ice Road Truckers. The premier was the most watched premier ever for the History Channel, and it was eventually picked up by the UK, Australia, The Netherlands and some countries in Africa.

Each season of the show introduced new drivers, though there was spillover from past seasons as well.

• Hugh Rowland – A veteran driver who owns a trucking company that employed several of the other drivers on the show. He had conflict with his drivers about the maintenance of his vehicles.

• Rick Yemm – A second year driver who worked for Rowland and has a long history of damaging his vehicles by hard driving and risk taking.

• Alex Debogorski – Debogorski has been driving trucks for 26 years and always makes the first trip of the season for good luck.

• Jay Westgard – Westgard is one the youngest drivers on the ice roads, but he has the respect of the veteran drivers. He started driving at the age of 16.

• T.J. Wilcox – Season One was Wilcox’s first year on the roads, and he was vocal about just doing the job because he was looking for adventure. He had a bumpy start with the other drivers and a series of accidents. He began to take the job more seriously and won respect from the other drivers.

• Drew Sherwood – The show also depicted Sherwood’s first year on the roads. He had been a trucker for many years before and thought driving ice roads would not be any different. He didn’t find any friends among other drivers and eventually decided that the ice roads were not for him.

Drew, Hugh, Rick and Alex appeared on this season and were joined by:

• Bear Swensen – Swensen has been on the ice roads for six years but spent many years driving logging trucks before that. He also hosts bear hunting tours.

• Eric Dufresne – A 26 year veteran of ice road driving, Dufresne handles most of the dangerous and heavy loads.

Hugh and Alex are joined this season by:

• George Spears – After 30 years of driving the ice roads, this season depicts Spears’ last year before retirement.

• Jack Jessee – With 15 years on the roads, Jessee is hired for many of the heavy load jobs, which are considered more dangerous.

• Lisa Kelly – As one of the only female drivers, as well as one of the youngest, Kelly has had two years behind the wheel. She is trying to become the only woman to take heavy loads.

• Tim Freeman, Jr – Freeman is the fourth generation of his family to be driving the ice roads. Spears is his mentor.

• Carey Hall – Hall has the respect of all the drivers on the ice roads and often helps Jessee pull heavy loads.

Various support personnel from the trucking companies also appear on the show.

• Kelly Osbourne Pics
• Kourtney Kardashian Pics
• Lauren Conrad Pics

• What Couples are Still Together from The Bachelor
• Rock of Love Bus
• CBS Survivor Application
• Kate Gosselin
• Jon and Kate Plus Eight