Highway Thru Hell has been picked up for a second season with 13 episodes.
Filming is set to begin sometime in the next few weeks and will continue to follow Jamie Davis and his heavy rescue crew on the local highways over the winter.
“We’re pretty excited there’s going to be a second season,” said Davis. “The TV show has accelerated our program and taken us to a new level.”
Highway Thru Hell has become a massive hit on the Discovery Channel, garnering the highest premier audience in network history. The series, which is produced by Vancouver’s Great Pacific TV, maintained an average of more than 600,000 viewers every week.
“It’s exciting,” said Davis. “It puts Hope into a whole new league in terms of tourism and publicity for the town.”
The show has also brought the heavy rescue team fame. Davis said he gets about 40 emails a day from fans and responds to numerous comments on Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the shop has become a tourist attraction in Hope with visitors frequently stopping by to take pictures. Davis admits its been challenging to balance business and personal life.
“It’s been a bit of a hard road for me as the owner to try to accelerate everything fast,” said Davis. “It’s been hard on the family with the hours we put in. There’s a huge sacrifice and a commitment to this show. There’s been a lot of growing pains we’ve had to deal with in a short time.”
The Highway Thru Hell film crew will be staying in Hope for the winter to shoot footage for the upcoming season and setting up a blue screen room at Davis’ shop. There’s also been some discussion about possibly expanding the merchandise line and hiring local people to run some kind of outlet.
Discovery Channel is airing a Highway Thru Hell marathon on Dec. 25 starting at 2 p.m. featuring the full eight-part series, After the Crash special, and a new bonus episode.