Local TV show ‘Out Da’ Bayou’ makes its big move to the Discovery Channel this month

The locally produced reality-outdoors program Out Da’ Bayou expands its reach to 96 million homes with a Discovery Channel debut Jan. 6.

The show, which has aired on the Sportsman Channel since 2015, is all about Louisiana’s Sportsman’s Paradise lifestyle. Creator John Jackson visits marshes, swamps, bayous, rivers and coastal waters on a quest for the state’s finest catches. He cooks everything in the field at the end of each show. Thus the program’s tagline: “Stories with great taste.”

Whether they’re in the field or at their office/production studio, Jackson and Out Da’ Bayou operations manager Robin Vucinovich are usually a two-person crew. For their small production team, Jackson calls the move to the Discovery Channel “huge.”

“It’s the door I always wanted to open,” he says.

Out Da’ Bayou also touches on more than the bounty available from Louisiana’s natural resources—it’s the story of the people who harvest it. Before he launched the program, Jackson says, “every outdoors program concentrated on the fish and the animals. But anybody with an iPhone can film fish coming over the side of a boat.”

So, he started telling stories about oyster fishermen, shrimpers and crabbers, and how they hone their craft.

“If it’s a fishing show, a duck-hunting show, a show about harvesting oysters or alligators,” he says, “we always look for the story within the story.”

Watch the show at 7:30 a.m. Saturday mornings on the Discovery Channel or via Amazon Prime instant video.
outdabayoutv.com

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.