Ice Road Truckers has stopped the Chop on the History Channel.
The Porkchop Era on Ice Road Truckers has ended on the History Channel.
Porkchop had to have been one of the least-inspired characters in IRT history (and, remember, everyone, these are just characters on this obviously highly scripted show), and was likely created just to be disposed of at some point in the season.
After all, conflict creates interest on these types of shows, and the Porkchop character created a lot of conflict, tension and anxiety all around, from viewers to fellow drivers.
It was obvious from the beginning that he was going to go home without a job at some point.
When Lane got yet another bad report on The Chop from trainer Phil this week, Lane had a choice to make: Keep trying to train Porkchop and hope he would develop into an acceptable Dalton driver for Carlile before he hurt himself or someone else, or just cut his losses and let him go. As fans now know, he chose the latter.
“It gets to a point where a guy’s out there long enough, he’s not getting it, then he may not get it,” Lane said in a discussion with Phil.
Chopping The Chop
It was kind of sad, actually, seeing Porkchop approach dispatcher Mark and hear him tell Porkchop, “You need to go see Lane before I can get you a load out of here.”
You knew he was going home, but he seemed completely unaware of his predicament—funny, considering the way he had been intentionally taunting trainer Phil on the haul road. “Back to the principal’s office,” he commented.
Yes, but this time he was expelled by Principal Lane:
“There’s a strong contingent of drivers, your peers out there, that you’re not coming along like you should.
We’ve been doing it for several weeks now, and it doesn’t seem to me like the opinions are changing.
There’s always a learning curve; we understand that. We go above and beyond that to make sure we give everybody the opportunity.
But, I have to learn when it’s time to cut our losses and cut our risk.”
Ouch; now THAT was a particularly harsh line—“cut our losses and cut our risk.”
After completing the conversation, Porkchop left, not happily: “They said I wasn’t doing my job right, didn’t learn the road quick enough.
Maybe they need to come down to the Lower 48 and learn how to drive a real truck, then they can come up here and say they’re truck drivers.”
And, his problem, as he saw it, was simply Lane and Phil collaborating against him.
But, he said he was proud of what he did on the haul road: “If you know you did your best, don’t let anybody else tell you different.”
Lane was pretty clear on his feelings about the situation: “I’m not sorry to see him go.
There was too much inconsistency, and when it comes down to it, we’re still running a business here, not a charity, and Porkchop just wasn’t getting it done.”
To finish out the season, Lane called in a former IRT driver, Ray Veilleux. Ray won the load count as a rookie—yes, Jack was driving that season—and was excited to be back.
At any rate, the Chop has been stopped.