Animal Planet dives into new waters with 'Top Hooker'

Animal Planet is heading into some deep waters with its new fishing competition series, “Top Hooker.”

The show features 10 professional anglers who compete to take home $30,000, a new car and of course the coveted title of “Top Hooker.”

“It’s not like… your grandpa’s fishing show,” explained host Reno Collier, who guides the competitors throughout the rigorous challenges. “It’s fast paced. It’s exciting.”

Collier, whose best known for his work as a comedian, told FOX 411 the show –unlike many reality series on TV today– is one the whole family can enjoy together.

“For one thing a family can watch it,” he said. “You can watch it with your kids.”

And he added that the series isn’t just aimed at fishing pros.

“What’s funny is my wife... She loved it. My kids love it,” he said. “Obviously, guys, sportsmen, other anglers are going to love it… but the competition is so heated it doesn’t matter if you fish or not.”

The “Top Hooker” challenges include some tough physical work, such as fishing while on zip lines and bow fishing, Collier said.

“There’s some things that come down to the wire that were amazing. A lot of the Jet Ski stuff out in the Pacific was pretty wild,” he said. “They caught some stuff they didn’t think they were going to catch.”

And after a hard day’s work the fishermen –and women—didn’t head to a luxurious hotel, but rather they camped out, spending the nights in the wild.

“They roughed it through it,” Collier said. “That became an issue, just exhaust. And being exhausted and not getting any sleep on top of it.”

For Collier, the rigorous competition made his job easy. He said his jokes were rarely needed to keep the series entertaining.

“It really turned out to be much more challenging for these people than, I think, anybody thought.
Everything was so exciting and it was moving so fast that I didn’t have any pressure on me [to be funny].”

“Top Hooker” premieres on Animal Planet on Sunday, June 2 at 10 p.m. ET.