WASHINGTON — January 10, 2014 — National Geographic Channel President Howard T. Owens today announced that the network has greenlit a spinoff of its highly rated series Wicked Tuna. The new series, Wicked Tuna: North vs. South [working title], also produced by Craig Piligian’s Pilgrim Studios, begins filming off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina this winter and will premiere in the U.S. and globally this summer.
The original Wicked Tuna follows the cutthroat, high-stakes business of bluefin tuna fishing in Gloucester, Mass., as vessels and crews set sail in search of the smartest, fastest and most elusive fish in the ocean — and the big money that follows them. Although bluefin season came to an end in Gloucester on Dec. 31, it’s just about to get started in the Outer Banks.
When the new season of Wicked Tuna premieres this February on National Geographic Channel, some of the New England captains from the original series will have already ventured south to reach the evasive bluefin in the Southern Atlantic waters before their North Carolina counterparts beat them to the catch. The weather is much more unpredictable in the Outer Banks during its January through March bluefin season, and the seas can be extremely rough. But if the captains can reach this “new frontier” and reel in some “monstah” fish before the government catch quota is reached (the quota was reached in mid-February last year), the winter months could potentially yield a greater catch than in Gloucester. In fishermen’s terms: a cash bonanza.
Read the full press release at ZAP 2