DISCOVERY CHANNEL It's a dirty job on series; Rowe's the one to do it

The host says he does 'immersion television.'
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
In the past year, Mike Rowe has ripped off a toenail, thrown out a shoulder, cracked a rib, hurt a hip and banged up a leg.
Oh, there's also the scar left behind when his hand was gnawed by an alligator gar, a large fish with a long, tooth-filled snout.
He's done all this as the host of -- and participant in -- the Discovery Channel's Tuesday night series "Dirty Jobs."
The title says it all. Each week, viewers see Rowe working as an apprentice on some of the nastiest and dangerous jobs.
"I'm a B-list celebrity trying to give it an honest look," Rowe said. "They see me do actual work. ... I try to be the viewer with a microphone."
That job has taken him noodling, which is catching catfish with his hands. He's also been shoulder deep into the rear of a cow and stood inside a den of bats where he was showered by all sorts of vile bat fluids.
Purpose of show
The point of the show, he said, is to give an insight into some of the jobs people hardly think about, like picking up dead animals on the road.
"I rarely do anything on the show by myself. I don't want it to be about me," Rowe said. "Squatting in the sewer in San Francisco, it's really hot, we're up to our knees in a river of [excrement]. Rats and cockroaches are all over. I would never, ever walk into that environment, except for the fact that the guy who does it every day is squatting next to me."
Rowe calls what he does "immersion television," and says it fits somewhere between reality TV and documentaries.
The idea for "Dirty Jobs" was hatched a couple of years ago while Rowe was hosting TV show "Evening Magazine" in San Francisco. He did a piece on a part-time minister who artificially inseminated cows. Part of the process was talking about how life would be without that job. The segment was a hit, and soon he was doing more. He later sent a few to the folks at the Discovery Channel, where he worked as a narrator since the mid-1990s. They ordered 40 episodes, and he was gone from "Evening Magazine."
Variety of jobs
It's not the first time Rowe has changed jobs. For a while, he sang with the Baltimore Opera. He sold jewelry on-air at QVC. He's appeared in Tylenol commercials. And he's been the narrator for thousands of hours of television, including "American Chopper." He's also gone from hosting "Romantic Escapes," a show about five-star hotels, to one about tough jobs.
"Now," Rowe said, "it's poo, blood and semen."
He said he's proud of the work he's doing now, which is something he hadn't felt at past jobs.