After completing a graphic piece on cow artificial insemination, Rowe was inundated with letters expressing "shock, horror, fascination, disbelief, and wonder".

Rowe sent the tape to numerous networks, including Comedy Central, who replied saying "At this time, our fall schedule does not allow for a talk show that takes place inside a septic tank.

Rowe said that if half the people on his Facebook fan page said "Hey, Mike, here's 10 bucks for jet fuel and basic production costs," he'd "put the band back together and start shooting Somebody's Gotta Do It tomorrow.

Stay tuned…"[10] On June 23, 2020, it was announced that a spin-off titled Dirty Jobs: Rowe'd Trip had finished filming[11] and would premiere on July 7, 2020.

[12] Rowe mentioned that the spin-off happened because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted plans to film episodes in the original Dirty Jobs format.

[14] In July 2006, the show aired two special episodes to kick off and wrap up Discovery's annual Shark Week, of which Rowe was the host.

Each episode ends with a segment, usually shot at a previous dirty job, where Rowe tells the viewers that the show's continued existence depends on viewer submissions of suggestions for additional dirty jobs, and instructs them to go to the show's website for details on how to submit ideas (this segment is, however, usually edited out of the Canadian broadcasts of the series on Discovery Channel Canada).

[18] According to roadkill taxidermy artist Stephen Paternite, Dirty Jobs filmed a segment featuring him in 2003, which was ultimately cut by the Discovery Channel as "too gross".

At some point in every episode, a screen with the Dirty Jobs logo pops up before a commercial then a part of the song "Get On Out In Here" by Matt Koskenmaki[23] plays.

In the first half of 2007, "We Care A Lot" was replaced with "Pop Rock Theme" by Matt Koskenmaki[23] (who also did the other music cues for the show), due to rights issues; older episodes aired at the time had their introductions reedited.

Season 3 commercials feature Rowe sharing the stage with a pig positioned on a rounded white pedestal, with nondescript formal-sounding light instrumental music in the background.

During the cow pots segment of episode 47 ("Poo Pot Maker"), Rowe imitates the singing gondoliers of Venice while paddling around the liquid holding lagoon on the Freund farm: "'O Sole Mio/Don't know the words/I've paddled for hours/In ponds of turds..." In a 2007 episode set at Prince George's Stadium with Rowe spending the day doing the "dirty jobs" associated with groundskeeping and dugout maintenance for the Bowie Baysox minor league baseball team in Bowie, Maryland, Rowe ended the segment singing the National Anthem prior to the game and throwing out the first pitch.

So he explained that one night, as they sat on "Foley" Creek (actually "Folly" Creek, but he has a tendency to pronounce it incorrectly), after a night of oysters and drinking (likely during the Oyster Harvester segment of the shrimper episode), he, Juke Joint Johnny and Sam (likely Silky Sam) jotted down some lyrics and the "official, unofficial Dirty Jobs Theme Song" was born.

[25] At the end of the pipe organ specialist segment of the geoduck farmer episode, Rowe sang what he called the Dirty Jobs Anthem.