World’s Toughest Fixes -
Host Sean Riley Interviewed

The intrepid young host of National Geographic Channel’s World Toughest Fixes lends a hand around the planet, repairing some of the most dangerous, massive and hardest to fix problems. Are you ready to dive off an oil derrick in high seas, repair a nuclear turbine or dangle from a helicopter while fixing high voltage power lines? Don’t worry! Take a seat on the couch and let Riley get his hands dirty as he tackles the World’s Toughest Fixes.

Interviewed by Paul Oscar Hamilton, Our Manly Special Features

Sean Erin Riley, or just “Riley” to most, has the rare combination in television of intelligence, aptitude and congeniality. Each week the rangy California native travels the globe becoming a new hire, joining professional crews as they fix big problems. Here are excerpts from the Our Manly interview.

OM: World's Toughest Fixes  has showed Down Under and across the world and you've now finishing season 2. Any chance new episodes will be filmed in Australia?

Sean Riley: To a certain extent we are at the mercy of when and where things break down. That’s the pressurized nature of the show and what makes it so interesting. These aren’t public relations stunts where we set up time with some company to go play with their toys. These are very real situations where millions and millions of dollars and heavy deadlines are on the line.

OM: What has been most humbling about this job for you? You interact with people under enormous strain, the actual people who do the jobs that keep the world running.

SR: That’s the reason I took this job. It’s something I’m passionate about. Because I have a background in industrial venues, I understand a lot of these processes and I can walk into an environment and not get myself killed, and in some cases to be of some real help. But the crucial thing about the show that made me want to do it is that we get the opportunity to showcase these amazing unsung heroes that do the jobs that are absolutely necessary to keep the world turning. Often, they do it without any recognition. People may not think a nuclear power plant or an Alaskan pipeline relates to them, but every time you flick on a light switch or get in your car, you have these unsung heroes to thank. Getting to show the work they do is a real privilege.

OM: Is it hard to get through airport security? You seem to tote around a lot of stuff.

SR: Oh my god, so much stuff. We take an amazing amount of equipment. Depending on the environment, there are the tools necessary just to survive, scuba and specialty climbing gear, special electrically conducive suits to work on live power lines. There is a lot of equipment just to get to the job. Then there is the added complication of trying to film it. We travel with anywhere from 15-30 cases. It’s quite a circus going through the airport. When you try to get it to some obscure place like French Guyana or the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, some place in the middle of nowhere, it is quite a production.

OM: In one episode you decide to climb the smoke stack at a nuclear power plant. It occurred to me that your cameramen also had to climb the stack, too, and maybe with one hand while he’s filming?

SR: The cameramen are absolute rock stars. Working at National Geographic affords us the opportunity to pull from a large pool of the best directors of photography and camera people in the industry. If we are going to work under a ship 70 feet down in dangerous waters offshore, we have access to the best underwater photographers in the world. The same can be said of working up on a tower. I may work with a cameraman that may not have the same industrial experience as me, but has been to the top of Everest. Incidentally, that guy said that being on the top of a 2000 foot tower was the freakiest thing he’d ever done.  

OM: As a kid I used to wait for my National Geographic Magazine to arrive in the mail. You must have some notion of what it means to join the ranks of their explorers?

S R: It’s awe inspiring and humbling. There is a huge and impressive line of explorers and very brilliant people involved in this organization before me. I am aware of that pressure, and my own desire to live up to the reputation that National Geographic has built. And I think we (World’s Toughest Fixes) do. We have extremely stringent Standards and Practices. Anything I say on TV has to be documented, annotated and provable. We go through great pains to make sure that what we are telling is the truth. I really like that. It is good to know you can feel confident showing up to anything on National Geographic, that what you see is real. I’m not allowed to say anything that isn’t true. If it’s just for drama’s sake, it doesn’t make the program.

I’m also not above capitalizing on the reputation that National Geographic has in order to gain access to places where cameras have either rarely or never been. There’s a certain cachet of integrity that that name holds. When you announce that you want to come film inside a nuclear power plant, a potentially radioactive area, the initial response is, “You’re insane!” Cameras have not been in these areas, especially after 9/11. But by mentioning National Geographic, that reputation of integrity, is enough to crack the door.

OM: I’ve had the good fortune of being in your work studio and seen your wall of shame, your display of tools and mechanisms that had failed. Have you had any spectacular failures while filming and would that result in stopping filming or is that actually what you want to get on camera?

S R: Things have, quote unquote, failed; things go wrong. These are not P.R. stunts. These are people trying to fix a vital piece of our infrastructure, whether it be a pipeline or our energy grid, and often these are cutting edge technologies and difficult things to do. Hey, if it was easy, everybody’d be doing it. Yeah, people try things and sometimes it doesn’t work. We back off and talk about it and go back in and try something else. Certainly, those are not times to turn the camera off. Not because we are hungry for sensationalism, but that is the key moment to tell viewers how difficult it is. If we don’t see those small failures and struggles, the audience doesn’t feel included. I want the audience to feel like they’ve joined the team, that they have shared the same triumphs and success as the people involved.

Failure is not an option. They are going to succeed. The world needs its electricity and its oil. We may have setbacks, but it will be a success in the end. It simply has to be.

OM: Are you a Gen X hero?

S R: No, I’m not a hero of any sort. I get to run with the heroes. I’m a very, very lucky person who has been given a chance to show off some of the people he thinks are heroes. I get to play at being a hero, but the real heroes do this day in and day out whether there is a camera there or not.

OM: Have you encountered any generational tension? Jobsites are often places where men get together and do manly things. Do you get ribbed, guff?

S R: On several fronts. I am younger than some of the other guys out there, not the youngest, and there’s a bit of natural ribbing there. I’m the perpetual new guy. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the term “F.N.G.” But, that’s me. I’m the perpetual “F.N.G.” Every two weeks I pick up and go to a new crew and often there is a lot of skepticism. And that is part of what I want to capture on camera. I’m not interested in hiding anything. I roll into a crew and it’s my first day on the job and they don’t know me.

People are very skeptical and I don’t blame them. Having worked on and run my own crews, in critical environments, I know that if somebody sent me some person, FROM TV, that I didn’t know, my initial response would be, “Stand over there in the corner, don’t touch anything, don’t mess with anything, don’t talk to anybody, just stay out of the way." This is a dangerous job and lives are at stake and I can’t afford any wildcards. I understand when I am met with that attitude. I initially do a lot of keeping my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open.

OM: You travel all over the world being thrust into new situations. Most valuable tool?

S R: Your brain. I may be sidestepping your question, but your brain. When you jump from industry to industry, problem to problem, you’re stepping out of this idea of doing something over and over until you become good at it. To stretch your mind to solve a problem in a completely different industry, under a new set of parameter every week, you gotta bring your brain.

Now, one physical tool? I have to say, I am extremely partial to scissors.

OM: (laughing)

S R: I kid you not, I carry a pair of EMT shears. Those have seen more use than any other tool. As good as a pocket-knife, but you can cut things with one hand and you are much less likely to cut yourself. I am very partial to a good pair of shears.

OM: Hey Riley, I want to thank you on behalf of www.ourmanly.com.au . We look forward to your success in Australia. We wish you the best of luck.

S R: Thank you very much, I appreciate it, take care. 

Sean Riley studied journalism under and is a sailing partner of renowned US Navy Commander and sailing instructor to the stars Captain Dan Ryder, who is also currently profiled in the Our Manly Travel section. Read about Riley's mentor and friend >>here!