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Mike Rowe Reveals THIS OLD HOUSE’s Incredible Impact on TV

Photo from Mike Rowe’s Instagram

Mike Rowe Reveals THIS OLD HOUSE’s Incredible Impact on TV

By Movieguide® Contributor 

DIRTY JOBS star Mike Rowe and special guest Kevin O’Connor, host of THIS OLD HOUSE, reflected on their series’ impact while on “The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe” podcast. 

O’Connor revealed that the people behind THIS OLD HOUSE have helped it find nearly 45 years of success. 

“I stand proudly next to the title of host for one primary reason on our show,” O’Connor began. “Our cast are profession contractors. That is the thing that has always distinguished us from the very beginning 45 years ago.” 

“The gentlemen and now gentlewomen that we work with all have their professional contracting businesses, and it’s actually their primary business. Television is sort of an afterthought,” he explained. “I’m the only one on the crew that doesn’t come from a professional contracting background.”

To keep up with the rest of the crew, O’Connor shared that he is always in “question mode.” 

“On our show, the people who get to give advice are professionals, so I stay in the question asking mode. My rule of thumb is, if you’re asking a question and it can be answered by Kevin O’Connor or Tom Silva, let Tommy Silva answer the question, always,” O’Connor laughed. 

In the caption, Rowe commented on DIRTY JOBS’ 20-year run. 

“I was marveling the other day, (and possibly congratulating myself) at the fact that DIRTY JOBS has been on the air for the last 20 years,” Rowe wrote. “It seemed like a long time, until I spoke with this week’s guest, the terrific Kevin O’Connor.” 

“Kevin is the host of a show that’s been on the air for 44 years. That show is THIS OLD HOUSE, and though he hasn’t been at the helm the whole time, he’s been there long enough to take some credit for keeping the wheels on this legendary bus,” he said.

O’Connor is the third host of the iconic home DIY show, which began in 1979. He took over the role in 2003.

“It’s almost impossible to calculate the impact of TOH on television and pop culture,” Rowe continued. “In that regard, it’s like Sesame Street, (which comes up in our conversation, somewhat inappropriately).” 

“In the same way you can draw a line from DIRTY JOBS to a few dozen shows that evolved from it, you can draw a line from THIS OLD HOUSE to entire channels,” he explained. 

“HGTV, DIY, Magnolia, and plenty of others wouldn’t exist without TOH. Kevin and I had a great chat about the business of making television, and the shortage of skilled labor—a cause that’s been near and dear to both of us,” Rowe concluded.

Movieguide® recently reported on Mike Rowe: 

Mike Rowe recently talked about alternatives to a four-year degree as tuition prices continue to skyrocket and fears of a recession loom. 

“Here we sit, we’ve got eleven-and-a-half million open jobs, most of which don’t require a four-year degree. We’ve got $1.7 trillion of student loans outstanding that we’re being asked to pick up the slack for and we’ve got a generation of kids who are simply not trained for the opportunity that exist,” Rowe said.

“At my little foundation, mikeroweWORKS, for the last fifteen years we’re been talking about this. And I’m telling you, I’ve never seen the headlines catch up to us as the way they are right now. The word has gotten out and people are really taking a hard look at learning a skill that’s in demand,” he continued. 

Rowe believes that the current generation of teens and young adults has been taught to only value jobs that require a college education. They don’t see vocational school or trade school as viable careers paths and the jobs that these programs lead to are seeing the largest numbers of employment opportunities.