WGN Celebrates ‘Dog’s Most Wanted’ Premiere With 4-Night Marathon of ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Episodes

WGN America has expanded its Dog the Bounty Hunter marathon leading up to the premiere of Dog’s Most Wanted by two nights. The marathon will now kick off on Sunday, Sept. 1 and will continue until the Wednesday, Sept. 4 premiere of Dog’s Most Wanted. The new show will feature the last hunts of the late Beth Chapman.

According to the schedule posted on WGN’s website, the marathon will kick off on Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. ET and will continue through midnight. The marathon will resume again on Monday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. ET and continue through midnight. On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the marathon will also start at 6 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday, Sept. 4, the marathon kicks off at 7 a.m. ET with Dog & Beth: Fight of Their Lives, the two-hour special that originally aired on A&E in 2017. The special chronicled Chapman’s fight with throat cancer and ended with her being told she was cancer free. Unfortunately, the cancer returned in November 2018.

More episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter will follow until the first episode of Dog’s Most Wanted debuts at 9 p.m. ET. The episode will be repeated immediately afterwards, and two more Dog the Bounty Hunter episodes will follow before Dog’s Most Wanted airs again at 12 a.m. ET.

The first episodes of the new series will include the final bounty hunts with Chapman, who died in June at age 51 after a battle with cancer.

“My wife is, was, and always will be the heart and soul of Dog’s Most Wanted,” Chapman’s widower, Duane “Dog” Chapman, said in a statement in July. “Beth wanted nothing more than for the show to go on, and I am so proud of the legacy that she left behind. She lived and died for this show, and she would be so proud of how hard we worked bringing these criminals to justice.”

Each episode of the new show follows a familiar format for Dog fans. Dog, Beth and the “Dirty Dozen” team will track down fugitives on most wanted lists across the country. Cameras also followed Chapman and Dog when she was in the hospital.

“WGN America is excited to share Dog’s and Beth’s latest and most exhilarating hunt with the world,” WGN America President Gavin Harvey said last month. “The Chapmans are beloved by millions of fans for their relentless pursuit of justice and loyalty to each other and their family. Dog’s Most Wanted captures all of this in this riveting new series.”

Bonnie Chapman, the daughter of Dog and Chapman, recently revealed that stage 4 lung cancer was the real cause of her mother’s death. She told SurvivorNet that her father is still heartbroken about how quickly Chapman died.

“Even as her hair started to diminish, he would tell her that she looked like an Egyptian goddess,” Chapman said of her father. “He just loved her so much, and I’m really proud of him for sticking with her until the very last moments. That’s what she needed. She needed someone who loved her as much as my dad did. You know, I think that she truly feels that love now.”

Photo credit: WGN America