A&E will air a four-hour Dog the Bounty Hunter marathon in memory of Beth Chapman, who died Wednesday after a battle with throat cancer. The marathon will begin Monday morning. It will end with an on-screen in memoriam to Chapman.
Network executives told TMZ the marathon will kick off at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT and ends at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT. At the end, the marathon will finish with a “special remembrance” for Chapman.
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“We are very saddened by the loss of Beth Chapman and our thoughts are with Dog and the entire Chapman family during this difficult time,” A&E said in a statement to TMZ.
Chapman, 51, died Wednesday in Hawaii, just days after she was put in a medically induced coma following a “choking” emergency at home. Her husband, Duane “Dog” Chapman confirmed the news on Twitter.
“It’s 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain,” Duane wrote. “Only today, she hiked the stairway to heaven. We all love you, Beth. See you on the other side.”
The official cause of death listed her stage II throat cancer. Chapman was first diagnosed with the disease in 2017, and was believed to be cancer-free. The cancer returned in November 2018 and was diagnosed as terminal. A few months ago, she decided to stop chemotherapy.
“Beth was somewhat of a control person — not from the grave but from heaven,” Duane told reporters in Hawaii. “I’m sure she’s still controlling me and I’ve got notes in my pillowcases, on my sink, in my shaving thing. She’s still telling me what to wear.”
He continued, “She did it her way. There’s some things that they predicted that the doctors ended up saying, ‘We’ve never, ever, seen anything like this.’ Her way was to live. She wanted to live so bad and she fought so long, and the reason she fought, she liked life but she wanted to show people how to beat it and what to do when it got her.”
Duane said one of Chapman’s last words were “It’s a test of my faith,” adding, “Well, the last step when you’re dying is to accept it… And she said to me the other day, ‘Honey, that last step, I ain’t taking…’ So go Bethy.”
The Chapman family shot to fame when Dog the Bounty Hunter launched in August 2004 and ran eight seasons. The family later starred on Dog and Beth: On The Hunt and Chapman’s cancer fight was chronicled in the special Dog and Beth Fight of Their Lives. The couple also filmed Dog’s Most Wanted for WGN, just weeks before Chapman’s death.
