The reality TV show Ice Road Truckers ran from 2007 until 2017 on History Channel. The show was set between Canada and Alaska and it featured truckers driving in extreme conditions to deliver their cargo. Truckers drove through thin ice and high snow, facing the changing seasons and the harsh reality of nature.
Still, it is a reality show. The cast has to sign a contract, it has rules to follow, and roles to play. Ice Road Truckers looks cool, but it's filled with cuts, edits, and changes. Here are ten facts about the show that the cast won’t tell us.
10 The Crazy Salary, But Not For Reality-TV
The average season income is between $30,000 to $50,000, for a three to four month's worth of work. The net worth of many of the show’s characters doesn’t depend only on the contract. Some of the cast had a long career in ice road trucking and they had been working in the field for years before the show was even a tiny idea.
Hugh Rowland was a part of the business before the producers of Ice Road Truckers came along, which explains his net worth of approximately $2 million. But the protagonists of the reality TV The Bachelor get paid between $70,000 to $100,000 for a 2-month shoot.
9 The Contracts They Have To Sign
The truckers in the show are employed by trucking companies, not by the producers. They have to sign contracts like any other employee, including health insurance, paid leave, and vacations. The workers have to follow the laws that rule the profession and no exceptions can be made, not even for TV. Truckers can’t drive for more than 16 hours per day and, because of the extreme environment, they can never turn off their engine.
When they get injured, the protagonists have to leave the show and, when on the job, they have to adhere to the severe speed limits. Aside from the profession’s laws, truckers sign away the rights to their voice and likeness, and they can’t make endorsement deals.
8 The Dangers For The Camera Crew
Capturing footage of an extreme job in extreme conditions can lead to accidents. Rumors have surfaced from the production of Ice Road Truckers of the crew taking risks to take the perfect shot. The camera crew hanged off the truck’s door to get the perfect angle, sometimes speeding in the icy tundra. For the camera crew, the preparation alone was hard.
During the truck-to-truck shots, Patrick Kliegel (the director of photography during Season 4) to literally hang out of the chase vehicle with his camera as he and the assistant producer kept pace with the big-rig.
7 The Dangers For The Fans
Fans have known to emulate their heroes and the ice road truckers were heroes. The most notorious and dramatic example was the death of Brett Colley in 2012. Colley had been a fan of the show and he decided to move to Alaska to work alongside his favorite truckers. He wanted to drive on the same dangerous roads and in the same extreme conditions, motivated by the cheerfulness of the show. But his truck came off the Alaska Highway in sub-zero temperatures and plunged down an embankment.
“He used to watch it religiously and about two years ago he actually applied to be on the show, but was unsuccessful,” Colley’s sister told The Sun. So, he applied for a job at a trucking company instead. After the first season aired, truck drivers from all over the U.S. were writing to trucking companies in Alaska, looking for adventure. Except, there are always dangers.
6 The Actual Dangers For The Cast
Viewers of the reality TV show saw cinematic drama on their screens; they rarely saw the dangers ice road truckers face. The job seems like an adventure, what is not there to like? For example, when the drivers needed any type of assistance, from mechanical to personal, sometimes they had to wait for hours.
The show’s reality star Hugh Rowland suffered a serious injury on set and he even sued the producers. The details are still blurry, but reports stated that Rowland was driving with one of the producers when the van got out of control. On icy roads, the dangers don’t stop when the cameras are off.
5 The Fakeness
The crash truck that appears on the credits? Fake. One of the tanker incidents portrayed during the first seasons? Just a one-sixth scale model being pulled through a snowy scene that’s made from sugar and shaved ice. When the truckers drift around a corner, they are not taking a risk and being adventurous. The move is calculated to ensure everyone is safe. It is good, suspense TV, but fake TV.
One of the seasons opened with a truck crashing through the ice, a great way to capture viewers. Turns out, the truck was a mini model filmed in a studio at an angle that made it look like a full-sized truck. Fans often get carried away and they forgot they are watching a cinematic production.
4 It’s A Show, With Scripts And Edits
Not only fake models and fake shots, but also scripted characters, scripted actions, and fake dangers. Ice Road Truckers is a Hollywood show, full of edits, the endless scene takes, and written parts. IRT protagonist Dave Redmon often complained about his portrayal of a grumpy driver. “They really, really spent a lot of effort making me look terrible in Alaska,” Redmon said to Trucker News.
Rick Yemm said the producers told him to be the villain, to be the one always messing up things. “We all get slated in these character roles, and there’s nothing we can do about it,“ Yemm told Huliq. Real ice road truckers have often said that their job is boring, so the producers added exaggerations to keep it running for 11, suspenseful seasons.
3 Not Everyone Loved The Show
Namely, actual ice road truckers and locals. Real drivers didn’t appreciate how easy the job looked on the show. The producers made the job look adventurous and approachable, but it is far from it. Truckers disliked the portray of their character too, claiming the show made them look like buffoons. They also didn’t like the exaggerations. Real ice road truckers believe their job is actually boring (because it is done with many precautions) and that the show created unreal drama.
Locals weren’t happy with the drama either. The first season of IRT was filmed in Canada, where the show didn’t go back for a repeat. The producers worked with truckers from local diamond mines but the managers didn’t like the portrayal of their workers because “ the show presented the six featured drivers as money-hungry, risk-taking cowboys.”
2 The Cast Beyond The Show
What happened to the IRT stars when the cameras were off? The producers of the reality TV show don’t like talking about it and the news are scarce -sometimes they are more rumors than facts. However, the story of Timothy Zickuhr has been in the headlines. As BuzzFeed News reports, Zickuhr was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2015. He was accused of kidnapping and threatening a prostitute in Nevada.
He wasn’t the only IRT star to get in trouble with the law. In 2011, Gregory Boadwine was arrested on a domestic battery charge in Florida, for assaulting his wife in front of their young son. The life of the protagonists beyond the show are often a mystery, kept under wraps by the producers.
1 The Mystery Of The Cancellation
The last season of Ice Road Truckers aired in 2017 and ever since, fans have been waiting for either a new season or a movie. Nothing is certain, not even why the show was canceled.
IRT star Alex Debogorski reportedly posted on his Facebook page, “Those TV guys from Hollywood are a bunch of bums! We have made Iceroad (sic) Truckers for 11 years. You would think they would call and say kiss my rear, hello, or …….. It’s March and I have not heard a peep from those guys so I guess the show is in the dust bin of history.”
Harsh, sarcastic, and confused: Debogorski felt like the fans of the show. In 2019, the show’s favorite Lisa Kelly said to Trucker News, “There’s been a lot of talk, but I don’t have an official word yet. I’m cool if they do. And, if they don’t, I guess I’ll have to go be a real truck driver again.”
Ice Road Truckers was a TV phenomenon and it still fires up the viewers' imaginations and dreams. The series premiere was seen by 3.4 million people and even the last season, was a success with critics and viewers. It had an average of 8.5 on Rotten Tomatoes, after all.
While the future of the show is uncertain, what is sure is that any IRT movie or spinoff will be an immediate success.