Deadliest Catch has its fishing vessels back.
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Time Bandit captains Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand and Northwestern captain Sig Hansen have announced they won't be quitting the top-rated Discovery Channel reality series after all.
"We're happy we worked everything out with Discovery. A deal's a deal. We're heading up to Dutch Harbor to start filming the new season of Deadliest Catch and hopefully it will be the best one yet," they said in a joint statement released by the network on Friday.
Last week, the men had announced they were quitting the crab fishing reality series in response to Discovery's decision to sue the Hillstrands for failing to complete the production of an upcoming Hillstranded special which will chronicle some of the brothers' non-crab fishing work.
Discovery had filmed most of the special in June, however the Hillstrands had refused to film some additional interviews required to finish it -- resulting in the network filing a $3 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against them.
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Hansen and Hillstrand lawyer Jeff Cohen -- who also represents Hansen -- had also both publicly blasted the lawsuit prior to the men's subsequent announcement that they were quitting Deadliest Catch.
Whether the Hillstrands' refusal to complete Hillstranded and the trio's subsequent Deadliest Catch exit announcement were just part of hardball negotiations for a new Deadliest Catch contract remains unclear, however Discovery will be dropping its lawsuit as part of the parties' settlement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"Everyone worked really hard on putting together Hillstranded and we're looking forward to wrapping that up. It's something new that we hope people will enjoy," the brothers said in an additional statement released by the network.
Deadliest Catch's seventh season is scheduled to begin production next week with the start of the Alaskan king crab fishing season.
About The Author: Steven Rogers