OK, I mean all this as no disrespect to all of y'all who love the Hillstrands and want to blame, as phudsontx put it, "Network Greed..."
...but I just don't see it.
I can't help but think that the Hillstrands have made at least a little money from being on Deadliest Catch; and certainly they seem to be among the most popular captains on the show... and I also can't help but think that, because of their popularity, they got a little money upfront from Discovery on this spinoff. Even if they didn't, it seems clear that they were under contract for this spinoff, which means that they had a certain obligation to deliver.
With all that said... look, I don't know these guys, except what I've seen on the show, but the show seems to show a certain pattern with them. They spent most, if not all, of Season 5 trying to figure out who to fire from the Time Bandit... and on any other reality show, I would suspect the producers of prodding them to do so, but I can't quite bring myself to believe that the Hillstrands would listen to what any producer told them do... and then they fired the guy (was his name Russell? I can't even remember now) that I think we all knew they would fire anyway.
And then, in Season 6, when Discovery seemed to be editing the show only to show family conflicts and angst in preparation for what happened with Captain Phil, the Hillstrands both started talking about retiring, and rather than say something to Scott about stepping up his game, they played Mike--who was the guy they didn't fire last year--up as the heir apparent for one night, and then threw him under the boat when it suited them.
Based on all this, I can't muster any sympathy for their inability to live up to their spinoff contract with Discovery. Maybe, if they didn't want to do it, they should've just called Discovery and leveled with them (like they should've leveled with Russell, and Mike, and Scott)...
Of course, while I can't agree that Discovery is being greedy here, I can't help but think they're being stupid. I can just imagine the lawyers (who presumably have never seen the show to know what kind of guys they're dealing with) saying, "OK, we'll put a BIG number on this lawsuit to scare them into fulfilling the contract." Good luck with that one, kids.
As I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of those guys--and I don't hate them, by any means--but the show without them would be less interesting. And it's truly unfortunate that, for whatever reason, Sig felt the need to follow them in quitting, because I am a big fan of the Sig and the Northwestern. And, just as I don't hate the Time Bandit guys, I certainly don't hate Captain Keith and his crew on the Wizard--in fact, I liked Keith a lot this year as his daughter "Bug" tried to help him quit chewing tobacco--but Keith, Jake and Josh Harris, and whomever else they can frantically sign for a new season, can't carry the show. They need the Hillstrands and the Hansens.
(edit: in all fairness, Jonathan Hillstrand did a couple of things in the last season that were pretty cool. He was there for Jake and Josh when Phil had his stroke; and he also confirmed for the fans on an "After the Catch" that Phil wanted the cameras to keep rolling no matter what happened to him.)
This isn't special for this show, or American television. It's Every Single TV Show out there.
