M’Chigeeng First Nation citizen has his show expanded to U.S. markets

By Sam Laskaris

M’CHIGEENG FIRST NATION – Neil Debassige is doing his best to put Manitoulin Island and some local First Nations on the map south of the border.

Debassige, a M’Chigeeng First Nation citizen, is the host and producer of Fuel the Fire TV, a fishing and hunting show which has been airing the past five years on the Sportsman Channel Canada.

Each season of the series has featured 13 episodes.

And now, for the past couple of weeks, previous episodes of the show have been airing in the United States via a popular format, The Outdoor Channel.

The Sportsman Channel Canada is a subsidiary of The Outdoor Channel. Both are part of the broader World Fishing Network, which is broadcast to 4.5 million households in the United States.

Debassige said network officials were keen to expand viewership of Fuel the Fire TV by having the show broadcast in the U.S.

The original ask was to produce 13 fishing shows and 13 hunting shows. But it was then agreed to conduct a pilot project, featuring just 13 fishing shows which would be shown to American viewers.

Instead of new episodes, however, Debassige said a decision was made to simply re-edit some previous shows which had been broadcast in Canada during the first five seasons of the series.

The majority of the episodes in the series thus far have been shot on Manitoulin Island. But Debassige said he has also filmed shows in Saskatchewan, Illinois, and Florida.

Episodes in the U.S. started airing on Dec. 27. They will continue to be broadcast weekly until March.

When deciding which episodes to show in the U.S., Debassige said he purposely selected a majority which had been filmed on Manitoulin Island.

“Tourism is our [main] industry here,” he said. “We try to promote everybody and not only First Nations partners. Our goal is to promote the local area. We want to have episodes with local products.”

Debassige said exact viewership numbers for Fuel the Fire TV are not readily available, but he estimates that about 100,000 people have watched episodes of the show during its run in Canada.

And he’s pumped about the fact that his show is sandwiched between two of the more popular shows on The Outdoor Channel in the U.S., Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures and Crush with Lee & Tiffany.

“We have to try to monitor our own metrics from social media,” Debassige said.

And he said Fuel the Fire TV reps will be doing their best to spread news of the show’s reach now.

“We’re looking at building the social media via TikTok and Instagram,” he said. “We’re looking to grow that organically.”

Fuel the Fire TV is the first and only First Nations-produced programming on the Sportsman Channel Canada.

“It started as a passion project,” Debassige said. “I was just trying to get it off the ground.”

Debassige said he anticipates to have contract negotiations, possibly at the end of February, to determine whether his show will continue to air in the U.S.

He has already shot seven episodes for the sixth season of the series. But he has not started editing those episodes yet.