Nick Mavar, a deckhand on the unscripted fishing show Deadliest Catch, died of a heart attack June 13 in Alaska. He was 59.

Mavar appeared in 98 episodes of Deadliest Catch, a show about crab fisherman plying their trade on the Bering Sea, which debuted on Discovery Channel in 2005. He worked on a fishing boat called F/V Northwestern. He left the show in 2020 after his appendix ruptured and he learned he had cancer, The New York Times reported. 

Mavar’s nephew, Jake Anderson, told the Times Mavar had a heart attack while on a ladder at a boatyard in Alaska. Anderson also appears in Deadliest Catch. 

The 20th season of Deadliest Catch debuted June 11. It sees Anderson lose his F/V Saga boat and return to the boat where he began his career, and the boat his uncle worked on, the F/V Northwestern. That boat is owned by Sig Hansen. 

Hansen wrote on Facebook: “I have known nick mavar for my entire fishing career, he has worked on our family boat for 25 plus years. He was more than a crew member, he was a very good friend and a right hand man. The passing of nick mavar spread through the fishing community like wild fire. This is no surprise because of how well known and respected he was by the fishing fleet.”

B&C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing the top five TV promos ranked by ad impressions. Our data covers the 7-day period through April 25.

On the strength of 400 million TV ad impressions, ABC’s promo for the 2021 Oscars tops our chart. (All those impressions, though, failed to motivate a sufficient number of viewers to tune in, and ratings for the telecast hit a historic low.)

Cable networks round out the ranking, with Discovery trying to hook viewers on the new season of Deadliest Catch in second place, Freeform hyping new teen drama/thriller Cruel Summer in third, HGTV building excitement for new show No Demo Reno in fourth, and Food Network giving some love to Worst Cooks in America in fifth.

Notably, the Deadliest Catch spot has the highest iSpot Attention Index (112) in this week’s ranking, meaning viewers were on average highly likely to watch it all the way through (vs. interrupting it by changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

1) 2021 Oscars, ABC

Impressions: 400,128,374

Interruption Rate: 1.61%

Attention Index: 101 (1% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 86%, Local 13%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $2,108,978

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $930,466

2) Deadliest Catch, Discovery

Impressions: 172,551,220

Interruption Rate: 1.50%

Attention Index: 112 (12% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 97%, Local 2%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $772,320

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $22,913

3) Cruel Summer, Freeform

Impressions: 166,655,649

Interruption Rate: 1.87%

Attention Index: 103 (3% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 90%, Local 8%, VOD/OTT 2%

In-network Value: $651,703

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $212,983

4) No Demo Reno, HGTV

Impressions: 165,369,176

Interruption Rate: 1.69%

Attention Index: 104 (4% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 98%, Local 1%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $779,726

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

5) Worst Cooks in America, Food Network

Impressions: 158,411,932

Interruption Rate: 1.15%

Attention Index: 110 (10% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 98%, Local 1%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $619,733

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

*Data provided by iSpot.tv, TV Ad Measurement for Disruptive Brands*

Impressions - The total impressions within all US households including National Linear (Live & Time-shifted), VOD+OTT, and Local.

Attention Score - Measures the propensity of consumers to interrupt an ad play on TV. The higher the score, the more complete views. Actions that interrupt an ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV.

Attention Index - Represents the Attention of a specific creative or program placement vs. the average in its respective industry. The average is represented by a score of 100, and the total index range is from 0 through 200. For example, an attention index of 125 means that there are 25% fewer interrupted ad plays compared to the average.

Imp. Types - Impression types tracked include National (Live + Time-shifted), Local, VOD & OTT. See below for further details.

In-network Value - Estimated media value of in-network promos.

Out-of-network Spend - The estimated amount spent on TV airing time for this promo's spots during a given date range.

National: Live - A national promo which was viewed during live linear television broadcast or same day, via DVR or on-demand.

Local - A promo that was aired during a local ad break slot.

VOD - This includes promos that run in on-demand content past three days (i.e. do not contain the linear promo load)

OTT - On-demand streaming content (i.e. Hulu, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Chromecast).

A new season of Deadliest Catch, its 15th, starts on Discovery April 9. The show depicts the brutal battle for crabs in the Bering Sea. “A new boat blows into town, rumored to know where over a quarter-billion dollars worth of king crabs are located,” Discovery teases. Everyone else will do just about anything to get in on the bounty.

Compounding the anxiety, the weather off the Alaska coast is downright unforgiving. Capturing it all is improved technology, including new RED Helium, Gemini and Dragon cameras shooting the action. “It gives us the look of a feature film, even though it’s a documentary,” said Decker Watson, executive producer with Deadliest Catch producer Original Productions.

The Southern Wind, The Wizard and Saga are among the boats featured this season. Bill Howard, Discovery executive producer, spoke with Multichannel News about the new season.

MCN: What has enabled Deadliest Catch to last for 15 seasons?
Bill Howard: People have a primal fear of and an attraction to the ocean. Deadliest Catch has been able to capture that in the most visceral and compelling way possible and it continues to step up its game season after season. The amount of work that goes into figuring out the best technology, the best camera techniques, the best talent that you can put into a show like this allows Discovery to continue to keep the bar very, very high.

MCN: What’s different about this season?
BH: We have a new captain who is part of a fishery survey who was able to determine that the bulk of the king crab hoard was in one area called the Mud Pit. He kept that information secret, but it soon got out. By the time we’re into the first and second episodes, they’re all fishing on top of each other. It becomes very competitive.

MCN: How many more seasons for Deadliest Catch?
BH: I wouldn’t begin to speculate. I think it’s got a long run. We end up with an incredible amount of material. We’re premiering back-to-back, two-hour episodes at the top of the season. There’s just so much incredibly compelling content.

MCN: What have you learned from the fishermen over the years?
BH: You learn a lot about risk versus reward, the give and take when you’re pursuing something to make a living. These guys epitomize that balance, where they’re constantly taking extreme risks in one of the most extreme environments on the planet in order to return a decent living for their families.

MCN: What compels them to do the show?
BH: These captains would be doing exactly the same things with or without the cameras present. We’ve been able to work with captains who are willing to take on the additional burden of a camera crew on the boat and that’s what makes the show as compelling as it is. The captains become less aware of the crew over time and they just continue to do what they do.

MCN: What’s your favorite moment this season?
BH: There’s a great sequence in the premiere on the Cornelia Marie, where Josh and Casey are pulling up their first pot of the season. Everything comes down to the contents of that pot — whether they made the right decisions, if they’re in the right place. When they pull it up, the reaction you get from the crew, from the captains — as a viewer you’re on pins and needles. Have they invested all this time and effort into putting the pots in the wrong spot? When they pull that one up and it’s full, you can see the unrestrained joy.

MCN: Tell me about the weather.
BH: As winter moves in, it’s predicted to be one of the coldest in memory. The captains are all bracing for sea ice, which they haven’t seen for many seasons, as well as extreme snow. The weather is as extreme as I’ve ever seen it.

But we’ve got better camera equipment. The technology evolves and you can see more at night than you could in past seasons. When the storms hit the boats at night, you’re able to see with your own eyes the size and scale of the Bering Sea versus how small these boats become when they’re getting washed around by 20-, 30-plus-feet waves. It takes this season to a new level.

MCN: Is this the toughest Discovery series to film?
BH: I think that that would be beyond dispute. There may be some people who disagree, but I’ve worked on a lot of shows at Discovery and this is by far the hardest.

Burbank, Calif-based Original Productions has developed several of the most successful unscripted docuseries — History’s Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men, Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage and A&E’s Storage Wars among them — over nearly a 20-year span. Founded by Thom Beers, the FremantleMedia-owned production company also has cast the net with several shows in the fishing genre, the biggest being Discovery’s Deadliest Catch. This fall the studio and Discovery will spawn a spinoff, Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove, set among fishing families on the Oregon coast. Original Productions CEO Phil Segal spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about adding again to the Discovery Channel series, now in its 12th season, and about the future of reality TV.

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MCN:After 12 successful seasons ofDeadliest Catch, why did you feel this was the right time to create this spinoff series?

Phil Segal: We’ve done spinoff s before — Storage Wars was one of our shows that successfully spun itself off into Storage Wars New York, Texas and Miami, and of course L.A., as well as internationally in Canada, France and South America, so I think that’s an example of a really powerful format that equally had some good characters.

Deadliest Catch is uniquely different. While over the years we’ve done many shows that feature different forms of fishing, Catch is one of those shows that we were looking to expand the universe in terms of giving the audience a much richer, immersive experience, but we never thought about spinoff s because we were always concerned about damaging the brand. What we found with Dungeon Cove is an incredibly organic opportunity to celebrate crab fishing, but from a uniquely different perspective. This is the Oregon coast, featuring small towns and very prideful people, and their fishing grounds are rich and complicated. It’s an incredibly unique opportunity for us to celebrate our world through a very different lens. I don’t like to think of it as a spinoff but rather an organic extension of a world that hopefully the audience will embrace.

MCN:From a production perspective, what criteria do you need to meet before extending a popular reality franchise?

PS: It’s a very delicate process and one that’s not taken lightly, not only on our side but on the network side as well. The negative side of an unsuccessful splinter obviously could be damaging to a brand. The object of the exercise is never through the lens of “more is better.” It’s always through the lens of whether the audience’s experience is literally going to be expanded. The question always is, “Is this a legitimate story and is this going to have a benefit to the audience?” We always take that very seriously. For us, it’s when you have a unique opportunity to tell the story of a character, but because of the prism you choose to tell that story in, you have to make a decision whether or not going off and seeing what these other characters do or what’s happening in the world evolving around them is added value and not just a special or a B-story, but a world that can add value to the brand.

MCN:How do you see the reality genre evolving given the changing content distribution marketplace?

PS: It’s a complicated question: On the one hand, never in the history of television has there been so much content available for consumers on so many different platforms. When Original Productions launched, there were 20-plus competitors; today there are over 750. So for us we continue to look at what the storytelling worlds are for us going forward. I also think on the other hand it’s a challenge because as these distribution changes evolve there will be shifts in how we do business.

I think over the next 18 months, we’re going to see a continual evolution of the distribution system and we’re going to have to get a better handle on the economics of our business. What is the price of entry? What is it going to cost to produce? What can these networks afford to pay for their content and can we remain competitive? That story has yet to be written as we continue to look at the competitive landscape and learn on a daily basis how to compete in it.

New York – First-time independent producers should spend a little less time developing their ideas and a lot more in fostering the relationships to turn those thoughts into reality, according to a panel discussion at NYC TV Week here Thursday.

“It isn’t about the idea; it’s about the execution,” said Bunim/Murray Productions president Gil Goldschein during the panel discussion, “How a Show Gets Made,” moderated by Original Productions CEO and executive producer Philip Segal.

Original Productions is a unit of reality giant Fremantle Media and produces such reality hits as Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckersand Ax Men.

Goldschein, whose company literally invented the reality genre as producers of The Real World and continues to lead the genre with shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Project Runway and others, said that for the most part, ideas for shows are developed in-house. In order to get his attention, first-time producers have to show that they can help turn a project into reality.

That includes realizing that once an idea is accepted, the producer will usually give up control of the project, said Half Yard Productions co-owner and executive producer Abby Greensfelder. Half Yard’s shows range from Say Yes to the Dress for TLC to Hillbilly Handfishin’ (pictured) for Animal Planet.

“In order to get to the finish line, you have to relinquish control,” Greensfelder said. “That’s the price of entry.”

Aside from having a unique idea – either access to a character or a world that is unique to the television community, Greensfelder said first-time producers with unrealistic views need not apply.

“We’re taking on a risk,” Greensfelder said, adding that if a first-time independent doesn’t see the value she or her colleagues bring to the table “We will often walk away.”

While getting a foot in the door of a producer like Bunim/Murray or Half Yard isn’t easy, it’s even harder to go direct to the networks. National Geographic Channel U.S. president of original programming & production Tim Pastore said that he won’t even look at a project unless it comes to him through a producer he knows with a proven track record. 

That also includes agents. While landing an agent also will require an introduction from someone with an industry track record too, WME Entertainment partner Jason Hodes said that once an agent takes on a project, they can pitch it to multiple sources. Pastore agreed, adding that even if he likes a project, once he spends any money on it – even a small amount of a so-called sizzle reel (a 3-5 minute video that outlines the project) – it can’t be shopped to anyone else.

“If you come straight to me and I invest in your sizzle reel, you can’t bring it out,” Pastore said. “I’m going to start retaining rights.”

An agent, however, can shop the project to multiple networks, digital platforms and any other content distributor that would possibly be interested in the project.

Pastore recommended that would-be producers should search network web sites and comb show credits for production companies that produce shows that mesh with the genre they are developing to increase their chances for success.

“Pick the shows that are more in line with your programming ideas and pitch them,” Pastore said. “Go to Phil [Segal] if you have a fishing show more than a soap opera.”

Discovery Communications chief financial officer Andrew Warren has signed a four-year employment deal with the programmer that will give him an annual salary of $1.175 million, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the documents, the agreement was effective on Sept. 1 and expires on Sept. 1, 2018.

Warren signed on as Discovery CFO in March,  after then-CFO Brad Singer announced his intention to step down.

Prior to joining Discovery, the home of such iconic programming as Shark Week, Deadliest Catch and Naked And Afraid -- Warren had been CFO at apparel company Liz Claiborne since 2007. Prior to Liz Claiborne Warren spent 18 years at General Electric and had been EVP and CFO at NBC Universal Television Group, responsible for all finance activities of NBC Network, Studios, CNBNC, MSNBC, USA, SciFi and Bravo.

According to the SEC documents, Warren will receive an annual base salary of $1.175 million and is eligible for an annual incentive of up to 120% of his base salary, with his target for fiscal 2014 being blended based on eight months at his previous bonus target of 100% and four months at the new target of 120%. Warren also will receive performance-based restricted stock units valued at $2 million within 60 days of the execution of the employment agreement. The PSUs will vest 50% on Sept.1, 2017 and 50% on Sept. 1, 2018.