Dog’s Most Wanted, starring Duane “Dog” Chapman and his wife Beth, begins on WGN America September 4. Beth passed away June 26.
The show has Duane and Beth chasing down fugitives, with the help of a team of bounty hunters known as The Dirty Dozen.
Dog’s Most Wanted also depicts Beth’s losing battle with cancer. She was 51 when she died.
Dog’s Most Wanted is produced by Dorsey Pictures, a Red Arrow Studios company, along with Entertainment by Bonnie and Clyde. Chris Dorsey and Matt Assmus are executive producers for Dorsey Pictures. Duane and Beth Chapman exec produce for Bonnie & Clyde.
“Beth Chapman was the toughest woman I ever met,” said Dorsey, CEO of Dorsey Pictures. “She might be the toughest woman who ever lived. If she wanted to do something she did it, and when she said she wanted to hunt bad guys to the end that's exactly what she did. She famously told the crew, 'I want to die in my boots.'
“Cancer is a bitch and gravity gets us all in the end,” added Dorsey. “But in the process of dying she showed a lot of people how to live.”
Duane went from convicted felon to a high-profile bounty hunter. He starred on Dog the Bounty Hunter, which ran for eight seasons on A&E and helped redefine the network. WGN America began a two-day marathon of Dog the Bounty Hunter Sept. 3.
“My wife is, was, and always will be the heart and soul of Dog’s Most Wanted,” Duane said earlier this summer. “Beth wanted nothing more than for the show to go on, and I am so proud of the legacy that she left behind. She lived and died for this show, and she would be so proud of how hard we worked, bringing these criminals to justice.”
Dorsey said the new season is a fitting send-off for Beth Chapman. “While this season's shows were ostensibly about rounding up bad guys, I think Dog and Beth--like any of us faced with a terminal illness--were hunting for a way to say goodbye to one another,” he said. “For millions of fans around the world, Dog's Most Wanted was Beth's final gift for all the love they showed her.”
Dorsey added, “She died in her boots, all right...and those boots were big.”
