"America's Toughest Jobs" just doesn't work

Review |

If you're unfamiliar with the work of Thom Beers, cable's current reality titan, you can get a tepid greatest-hits version of it on NBC's "America's Toughest Jobs."

Beers is the producer behind nearly a dozen manly-man reality programs, such as "Deadliest Catch," "Ice Road Truckers" and "Black Gold."

Apparently NBC deemed his usual model — depicting a single season of crab fishing, for example — insufficiently suspenseful. A competition element has been added, with 13 male and female contestants competing for a cash prize.

The first episode last week revolved around Alaskan crab fishing. On the second tonight, the contestants drive trucks in Alaska.

A more descriptive title for "Jobs" would have been "The Apprentice: Blue Collar." Competitors get weekly instruction in difficult tasks, and their instructors — who actually do this stuff for a living — decide who gets booted.

The biggest problem with "Jobs" is that each episode is reminiscent of a Beers show, but there's little focus on the lovably salty sea captains or the endearingly gruff road warriors who make those shows come alive.