America's Toughest Jobs: A Preview

Think your job is tough? Sure, I think we all do at times (unless you're Simon Cowell; I get the feeling he rather enjoys being super-famous and rich, not having to dress up, and getting to come up with new and creative ways to rip on people). But the producers of NBC's newest reality series, America's Toughest Jobs, are here to tell you your occupation is cake.

Debuting tonight, Monday, August 25, America's Toughest Jobs (9 p.m. ET/8 C) is the brainchild of Thom Beers, the mind behind popular documentary-style reality fare Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers. Here, Beers ventures into the world of competitive reality television, as 13 men and women will try their hand at a number of rough-and-tumble professions, and those that don't cut it will get kicked off. (Will they say, "You're fired?" It's NBC. Maybe they could...)

According to the NBC website, these tough jobs will include logging in the Pacific Northwest, oil drilling in Texas, and of course, hauling loads across icy roads. The competitors have to match the standards set by the individuals who actually do these things for a living in order to stay on the show. The annual salary for each job will be thrown in a collective pot, and at the finale, someone will be taking home all the money as their hard-earned reward.

Personally, I find this new NBC reality-programming strategy interesting. First The Baby Borrowers, now America's Toughest Jobs? Have they decided America's spoiled teens just don't know how good they have it and are trying to teach them all a lesson or something?

The show is hosted by some guy named Josh Temple, who is credited with doing something on TLC called Backyard Nation (never seen it), and kind of looks like the guy from Ed. The NBC website for the show seems to suggest the contestants will not only have to deal with harsh working conditions, but also "tyrant bosses." (Hey, maybe Trump will make an appearance!)

Jobs the contestants will be performing include: crab fishing, ice road trucking, gold digging (Kanye West, paging Kanye West), oil drilling, bullfighting (okay, that's not the same thing as jobs that actually benefit society, but whatever), logging, working on a bridge construction crew, and mountain searching (which involves actually climbing the mountains, not just searching for them on the horizon and yelling, "Hey, there's a mountain!").

According to NBC's site for the show, the baker's dozen of contestants includes:

Amy Brodsky, 40, Boston, Massachusetts: A Wall Street exec and former consultant who says her dream job isn't sitting behind a desk, but rather being outdoors. Perhaps Wall Street was not the best career path, in that case. Just throwing that out there. She says she's a "no B.S." kind of person, gets impatient easily, and says her biggest fears are fire, base-jumping, heights, failure, and sharks. Is it just me, or does failure seem a little bit different from those other fears? "One of these things is not like the other …"

Ben Coleman, 28, also from Boston: Ben has a square-jawed, all-American face underneath Jason Castro's dreadlocks. He's a carpenter and has also been a furniture repairman, heavy machine operator, construction worker, and water proofer. He wants to make a difference in people's lives, wants to show people that he's a hard worker despite the way he looks, and has a tendency to be a "smart @$$." He oughta get along GREAT with some of the "tyrant bosses," then.

Bryce Frazier, 32, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: A personal trainer and former bus boy, Bryce says he's a competitive person. "Second place sucks," as he puts it. He is not "P.C.," and has a problem with "arrogant people, stupid people, and people whose egos are big." He's also a huge Yanni fan. Okay, then.

Christopher Young, a.k.a. "Bada-bing," 49, Queens, New York: An investment banker and former garbage man and corrections officer. His dream job is selling towels on a tropical island (not so much into the "tough jobs" then, huh?), he says he has no fear and no weaknesses (uh huh), and reads people well. With a nickname like "Bada-bing," I was really hoping he'd be a mafia goon or something, but alas, no such luck.

Eric Waterhouse, 53, Long Beach, California: Eric is a sculptor and alabaster miner who dreams of being a full-time inventor. He says he can sell anything he believes in, is curious, loud, aggressive, and glib, and used to sell motivational seminars in the 1970s to help a commune purchase a catamaran. There's nothing I could say that would make that any funnier than it already is.

Michaela Clemence, 23, ALSO from Boston: Geez, that town really pumps out the reality contestants, doesn't it? Michaela is a scientific job recruiter. She dreams of being a whitewater guide or scuba instructor, thinks people see her as a cute, curly-haired, naïve girl, but is actually a driven type-A personality, and is allergic to bananas.

Phil Kolarczyk, 27, Orlando, Florida: Phil is a pharmaceutical sales rep who dreams of being a rock star or pro golfer. He is blunt, believes he has the "brains and the strength," and that all he has to do is "show up, do (his) job, and walk away victorious." He also uses the bathroom very quickly. I appreciate him telling us that about himself.

Rick Broider, 35, from – guess where? – Boston: A software company VP and former cage fighter, state police officer, and military man (now THERE'S a tough job). His dream job is doing something to give back to the community, says he has no weaknesses (except Kryptonite, I would imagine), and grew up homeless. He's also afraid of sharks. How you get to be afraid of sharks growing up on the streets of Boston, I don't know, unless you mean sharks as in a gang, like the one from West Side Story.

Rie Heffron, 34, Portland, Oregon: Rie is a product specialist and promotional model who dreams of being able to take as many vacations as she wants. She also wants to show her daughter she's a strong woman by doing this show, considers herself a tomboy, and is good at troubleshooting and looking at the big picture. She also says she's a competitor and very frank and blah, blah, blah, but they pretty much all say that about themselves.

Rommel Gargoles, 28, Blackwood, New Jersey: Rommel sits on church ledges functioning as a decorative waterspout. Wait, that's not true, his last name confused me. He's actually a Karate instructor and a former promotional model. Reality TV is so good at bringing us pretty young models, isn't it? He's an "adrenalin junkie" who wants to make his family proud, and he has never done any type of blue-collar work before. Well, this ought to work out just fine, huh?

Sandy Gabriel, 26, Winnie, Texas: Sandy is a teacher who would like to one day create a youth center. She played in the national championships as a college athlete (doesn't say in what sport or for what team, but she's a former basketball coach, so I guess it's hoops, maybe?), refuses to be mediocre, and much like many of her fellow competitors, has no weaknesses. Nietzsche would be so proud of the lot of supermen and superwomen on this show.

Senta Burke, 30, Richmond, California: Senta is an administrative assistant who also refuses to be mediocre (which ironically makes her just the same as every other contestant on this show). She's named after a character in the opera, The Flying Dutchman, and that's the most interesting thing about her that I can see. She also cries easily, and can be unfocused. That will go over well on this show.

Steven Hopper, 22, Dallas, Texas: A recent college grad and former lifeguard and receptionist. Steven’s dream job is "something outside." That covers a lot of ground, buddy. He thinks people see him as an "immature kid" and "pretty boy," but wants to show he can do this stuff as well as anybody. He also compares himself to Iceman from Top Gun and is "scared to death" of commitment. Hear that, ladies? Come and get him!

So, that's it. Ready to see a group of non-mediocre super-beings who are afraid of sharks (seriously, almost every one of them had that fear!) and don't take crap from anybody do the kind of hump-busting tasks that this show promises to deliver? Then tune in Mondays on NBC for America's Toughest Jobs!

Chris Harris is a newspaper journalist from Somerset, Kentucky, and believes sitting in a chair at a computer all day takes a surprisingly rough physical toll. You can email him at wokosaurus@msn.com.

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