Mike Rowe’s feel-good show “Returning the Favor” has reached the end of the line at Facebook.
America’s “everyman” recently announced the bad news on the platform to more than 5.6 million followers. The news struck shortly after Mr. Rowe was shown a marketing video for an upcoming season.
“I’m afraid I come with sad tidings,” he wrote. “After four years of hosting a show like no other, I’m sorry to announce that Returning the Favor has come to an end. I received a phone call yesterday from Facebook, telling me that RTF would not be back for another season. Obviously, I was surprised. Returning the Favor has been a very successful endeavor, and the feedback from everyone has been extraordinarily good — from the first favor returned, to the 100th. In fact, it’s the only program I ever worked on the never received a single, negative review, or one critical comment. In that way, it was truly unexampled.”
The news season appeared to highlight an indomitable spirit of hope in American despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My news feed is filled up with bad news,” Mr. Rowe says in the trailer for the now-canceled show. “The violence and the anger and the outrage that you’re seeing. A lot of frustrated people are talking really loud past each other. Americans have suffered through pandemics and more disasters than I can name. But, where there are calamities, there are always people doing nice things for their community in a completely selfless way.”
Mr. Rowe’s narration is coupled with clips in which America’s “do-gooders” get a financial hand up from the “RTF” operation.
“Obviously, that video is no longer relevant, but I wanted to share it with you anyway, because it speaks to how unique this show was, and shows just how many people it touched,” Mr. Rowe added. “More importantly, it reinforces the undeniable fact that Returning the Favor simply couldn’t have happened without the people on this page.”
The host also thanked Facebook for supporting the show over four seasons and giving him incredible “latitude to make such an honest show.”
An inquiry into the show’s cancellation was not returned when The Blaze contacted Facebook.
Regardless, there is a silver lining for fans of the former “Dirty Jobs” and “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” host — he has a new show on Discovery+.
“Six Degrees with Mike Rowe,” which highlights historical milestones and how they’ve resonated into the future, is now streaming on the service.
“Well, look, what’s the famous old quote?” Mr. Rowe recently asked during a Fox News interview. “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, or something like that. The more unsure the future looks, the more unsettled the present is, I think the more important the past becomes. And so we’re desperate today, I think, to find topics we can all agree on.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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