Cold Water Cowboys is a Canadian documentary/reality series developed by Tyson Hepburn and John Driftmier. It aired on Discovery Channel Canada for 34 episodes and 4 seasons from 2014 to 2017. The show was filmed in Newfoundland and tells the story of six local captains and their crews.

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (March 2018)

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Cold Water Cowboys
Cold Water Cowboys season 2 poster
Genre	reality show, documentary series
Created by	Tyson Hepburn, John Driftmier
Developed by	Tyson Hepburn
Directed by	Tyson Hepburn Matthew Shewchuk Victor Kushmaniuk Stephan Peterson Peter Gombos Daniel Sekulich Michael Sheehan Samara Truster Donny Rose
Starring	Paul Tiller Adam Dodd Richard Gillett Conway Caines Morris Anstey Rick Crane Justin Bridger Calvin Kerrivan Donald Spence Kurtis Kerrivan Lee Pond Rick Caines
Composer	Bianca Ker
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	34
Production
Executive producers	Audrey Mehler David Paperny Cal Shumiatcher Trevor Hodgson Aynsley Vogel Tyson Hepburn
Producer	Tyson Hepburn
Production location	Newfoundland
Running time	46 minutes
Production companies	Paperny Entertainment[1] Entertainment One
Original release
Network	Discovery (Canada)
Release	February 25, 2014 (2014-02-25) – June 7, 2017 (2017-06-07)

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Outside Canada the show is known as Cold Water Gold (National Geographic UK^[2] and international)^[3][4] and Cold Water Captains (The Weather Channel).^[5][6] It is available globally on Netflix under its original title.^[7][8]

Set in several locations of Newfoundland and Labrador, Cold Water Cowboys shows the life of fishermen after the Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery in 1992.^[1][9] Those who remained in business had to switch to crab, shrimp, turbot, herring, mackerel and other species. The show has a local flavour and some episodes have subtitles to explain Newfoundland English.^[10][11][12] Richard Gillett, one of the show's captains, said the show is not only about fishing but also about "the communities and the families and the relationships between the fishermen and the communities."^[12]

The Cold Water Cowboys concept was developed by a Canadian producer Tyson Hepburn and director John Driftmier who were friends since film school.^[9] In fall 2012, the two went to Twillingate to film a demo reel^[13] and discovered fifth-generation fisherman Richard Gillett.^[9] For 10 days when Driftmier worked at St. John's, Hepburn filmed Gillett's team and their work.^[14][13]

Hepburn and Driftmier produced a demo reel in late 2012 and presented it to David Paperny who agreed to produce the show^[9][13] with Cal Shumachter and Audrey Mueler at Paperny Entertainment. The concept received support from Discovery's vice president Ken MacDonald^[9] and director of commissioning, Edwina Follows.^[15][16] A month before the shooting, Driftmier died in a plane crash in Kenya filming Dangerous Flights, so Hepburn and the team continued without him.^[9]

The first season was shot in Newfoundland between April and September 2013^[1] with the filming crew spending up to 3 week aboard.^[1] Cold Water Cowboys premiered at midnight February 25, 2014, gathering one of the highest first-week ratings in Discovery Canada's history.^[17][18]

Season 2 premiered on March 10, 2015, adding newcomers Andre and Michelle Jesso, and Morris Anstey.^[19][20][21] For the launch Discovery developed an HTML5 fishing simulator video game Atlantic Empire with characters from the show.^[19][21][22]

Season 3 premiered on March 8, 2016^[23] with a new captain Rick Crane joining the show.^{[24][25][13][26][better source needed]} Returning captains were Andre and Michelle Jesso, Conway Caines, Paul Tiller, Richard Gillett and Morris Antsey.^[27]

Season 4 premiered on April 18, 2017 and featured Paul Tiller, Morris Anstey and Rick Crane.^[28][29] New captains on the show were father-son team of Calvin Kerrivan and Kurtis and Lee Pond.^[27][30]

Midnight Shadow Captain Richard Gillet was arrested in October 2015^[31] and convicted in September 2016 for the assault of a dock worker while filming season 2 of the show.^[32] He received a conditional discharge and a year of probation in court.^[32]

Gillet received national attention in April 2017 when he staged a hunger strike in front of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans building in St. John's to protest against the actions of the DFO in its governance of fisheries. As the vice-president of the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador, he demanded a meeting with the fisheries minister over quota cuts to shrimp and crab.^[33][34][35] The hunger strike lasted 11 days and ended with Gillet being taken to the hospital.^[36][37] In September 2017, Gillett was fined $14,000 for the 3 violations of the Fisheries Act in 2016.^[38]

Another star of the show, Nicole Daniel's captain Toby Young faced charges in August 2015 for failing to comply with the condition of a fishing license.^[39][40] In August 2016 Sebastian Sails' captain Morris Anstey faced charges for an assault committed the same month. In February 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to 12-months probation period.^[41]

In 2015 the show was nominated for the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards at "Best Factual Program or Series" category^{[42][43][44][45]} but lost to the Ice Pilots show.^[46]