The Animal Planet hit reality series “Call of the Wildman” premiered in 2011 and was on the air for four seasons before it was suddenly canceled by the network. The show focused on Ernie “Turtleman” Brown, Jr., an adventurous outdoorsman from Kentucky as he purportedly rescued wild animals from all sorts of hair-raising situations. Exactly how much of what Turtleman did on the show was real or was staged had been called into question on several occasions. At the time that the “Call of the Wildman” cancellation was announced, though, Canadian Animal Planet Network executives said it was not because the show was staged, but because of poor ratings, instead, per the Canadian website, The Dodo.
Prior to the TV show’s sudden cancellation, Mother Jones published an investigative report called “Drugs, Death, Neglect: Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet,” suggesting there was more to the story: According to the Mother Jones article, there had been widespread animal abuse during the hit show’s production. For this reason, “Call of the Wildman” production was likely brought down not because of a decline in viewership, as Animal Planet Canada claimed. But instead, Animal Planet network brass likely hoped to distance themselves from the production and minimize negative publicity.
‘Wildman’ Ratings Were Strong
According to Mother Jones, “Call of the Wildman” ratings were not an issue in the seasons leading up to the show’s sudden cancellation, and the series continued to draw millions of viewers up until 2013, the year before the show got axed in the U.S. Per The Futon Critic, Ernie “Turtleman” Brown, Jr.’s show did pretty well until the very end, placing it among Animal Planet’s most successful franchises. After the Mother Jones article, published between Season 3 and Season 4 of the show, viewers stayed away, though. That year, their total number tumbled nearly half, as Mother Jones elsewhere writes.
Among other allegations, Mother Jones uncovered evidence that wild animals were caged and drugged in the production of the show, and many of those creatures were then injured or left for dead. When Animal Planet executives announced the series was no more, they used viewership as their justification, at least in Canada, but there was reportedly no mention of the damning Mother Jones article in the network statement. In Canada, the series was shuttered between the 3rd and 4th seasons, whereas in the U.S. it ran for one more largely ignored final year.