Mike Rowe Talks His New ‘Feel-Good’ Show ‘People You Should Know’ (Exclusive)

Mike Rowe is back with a brand new “feel-good” show that proves extraordinary people are sometimes in our own backyard.

The Dirty Jobs alum, 63, opened up to PopCulture.com about his new show, People You Should Know, ahead of its May 2 premiere on his YouTube channel, calling it a dose of “hopefulness at a time where a lot of people have thrown up their hands.”

People You Should Know had its genesis more than half a decade ago with Rowe’s Facebook Watch series Returning the Favor. “Not since Dirty Jobs had I seen a show get programmed so completely by the viewer,” he told PopCulture. “The concept was, you probably know somebody in your neighborhood who’s slightly better than you. They volunteer for the crappy jobs. They dedicate their life, in some cases, to making their community a better place. Everybody loves them.”

Highlighting those people in Returning the Favor over the course of 100-plus episodes earned Rowe a Daytime Emmy and cultivated a dedicated online fan base. But when Facebook Watch went by the wayside, “we had two million people on a website basically saying, ‘What happened to our favorite show?’ Well, this is it,” Rowe said.

“It’s called People You Should Know — same basic thing because we’re living in the same basic world,” he continued. “I get the sense [that] people are looking around for the neighbors they wish they had.”

Having “kind of bootstrapped the whole” production with a small team, Rowe said People You Should Know is looking at “micro” solutions to “macro” problems, like the man they profiled who works to train veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD in blacksmithing.

“And the results are just incredible,” Rowe noted. “So it’s the big systemic, societal problems being confronted really modestly by individuals with what I would call a bottom-up solution that both works in their neighborhood and that can be scaled.”

He continued, “It’s great when people see that they can make a difference in their neighborhood by simply following some neighbor’s example,” joking that while it all sounds “impossibly earnest” coming from him, it’s also a great time filled with fun behind-the-scenes moments.

“The show is a mix of reality and purpose. And sure, it’s hopefulness in a time where a lot of people have thrown up their hands, and [it’s] bottom-up solutions,” he explained. “I mean, look, the government will do what it does, and they can help as they can help. But that’s all from the top down. Finding individuals who are making a difference without a .gov behind their website — that’s important too.”

People You Should Know premieres Friday, May 2 on Mike Rowe’s YouTube page.