Mike Rowe credits essential workers during coronavirus pandemic: 'Now everybody gets it'
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“Returning the Favor” host Mike Rowe said on Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is showing Americans how critical frontline workers and small business owners are to daily life.
“Suddenly, people who never thought of themselves as essential, are critical,” Rowe told “Fox & Friends.”
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Rowe pointed out that his shows “Dirty Jobs” and “Returning the Favor” highlight the importance of people who have jobs at grocery and hardware stores and other overlooked workers. "Returning the Favor" is a reality web series that follows Rowe as he travels across the United States in search of people who are giving back to their communities.
Rowe said both shows attempt to "tap the country on the shoulder" and ask them to think about all of the working-class people that contribute to society in important ways.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I used to have to shake people by the lapels to get them to pay attention to the fact that somewhere, out of sight, out of mind, a guy whose name you don’t know, you can’t find on a map, is doing something to make your life better. Now, everybody gets it,” Rowe said.
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Rowe said that the headlines caught up to the themes of his shows.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It’s been on for four years. We’ve had 15 million people watch this thing. We’re absolutely overwhelmed with letters, enthusiasm, and question about what can we do in our town," Rowe said.
Meanwhile, about 70 percent of small business owners in the U.S. tried to apply for an emergency loan in the first week of the $349 billion program’s rollout, according to an industry survey.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed at the end of March, officially known as the CARES Act, established the Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to get cash in the hands of small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and incentivize them to keep staff on payroll, or re-hire workers who have already been laid off.
When asked to give advice to small business owners, Rowe said he was hesitant because one business owner's needs could be completely different from other businesses.
"I'm going to try to stay in my own lane here," he answered.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.