The Deadliest Catch Season 8 Moment That Discovery Allegedly Made Up

It's well known among reality television fans that a good portion of what you see on the screen is doctored or scripted for the sake of entertainment — and the long-running crab fishing reality series "Deadliest Catch" is no different. Former cast member Elliot Neese (who abruptly departed the series in Season 11 and entered a rehab facility) has gone on record multiple times to claim that a good portion of "Deadliest Catch" is altered for the camera, telling Newswire in 2016 that "Reality TV isn't real. It's entertainment, that's it."

During a similar interview with Blastzone Online in 2013, Neese dove into a more specific example of "Deadliest Catch" altering footage for the sake of drama, talking about a Season 8 incident in which his boat (the F/V Saga) allegedly rammed into ice while the crew members were asleep. "They said my boat hit the ice with a guy asleep at the wheel. That never happened," Neese explained. "I got woken up at least 300 yards away from the ice and slowly drove the boat through to get to St. Paul." 

Neese went on to explain that the footage itself was doctored and the frame rate was sped up to make it seem like the Saga was moving much faster than it really was.

While there's no way of truly confirming Elliot Neese's claim that this moment was invented behind the scenes, there have been several other instances throughout "Deadliest Catch"'s history where the cast and crew have claimed the show is either scripted or edited for the sake of drama.

Perhaps the most infamous example of this is the time when Discovery admitted to splicing together two separate events (the F/V Wizard flooding below deck and a powerful storm hitting that same ship) that actually occurred one month apart from each other. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this particular incident was actually documented in a production outline, and one of the producers shot additional reenactment footage to augment the scene. 

This admission of faking drama for "Deadliest Catch" (alongside Elliott Neese's aforementioned reports of doctored footage) casts doubt onto the validity of the entire series, as any episode could be edited in a similar way to make a routine voyage seem like a life-or-death battle against the sea.

Although Neese's claims have yet to be confirmed by Discovery or anybody else on the show, the series' history of doctoring footage is certain to make plenty of fans skeptical about what they see on "Deadliest Catch."