INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Billy The Exterminator’: Billy Bretherton Returns With New Season On A&E After A Nearly Five-Year Hiatus

By Inquisitr Staff
Published on: 04:34 PST, Apr 5, 2017

Billy the Exterminator with Billy Bretherton returns to A&E tonight with a brand new season after a nearly five-year hiatus. The last season of Billy the Exterminator aired in the U.S. on the A&E network back in 2012. CMT Canada then picked up expert exterminator Billy Bretherton for a new show, Billy Goes North, that premiered in September 2016. A&E is airing Billy Goes North as a new season of Billy the Exterminator tonight, much to the delight of U.S. fans who have wondered for the last five years what really happened to Billy Bretherton.

Fans fell in love with Billy Bretherton in The Exterminators back in 2009, with the series premiere on A&E. The Exterminators became such a hit that A&E renewed the reality TV series with a new name for five more full seasons. According to Zap2it March 2010, the second season, titled Billy the Exterminator, had a record-breaking season debut for A&E, adding that the season premiere garnered over two million viewers, which was 50 percent more viewers than the entire Season 1 average.

After Season 6 of Billy the Exterminator ended in December 2012, fans were saying it was a good family show and “hope it comes back.” Prior to the Season 6 premiere on October 6, 2012, Billy Bretherton and his wife, Mary, made the news with an arrest on a warrant for drug possession. Just after the last episode of Billy the Exterminator, Season 5, in March 2012, Starcasm reported that police were called to a hotel room in Bossier City, Louisiana, where Billy and Mary were staying.

After finding synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia, the couple was arrested on warrants and fined $500 with community service. Shortly after that, Billy Bretherton left the family extermination business in Benton, Louisiana (Vexcon Animal and Pest Control) that was featured in Billy the Exterminator, officially ending the series run on A&E. Diply shared that after a “successful six-season run,” Billy and his gang on Billy the Exterminator “seemingly vanished into thin air,” adding that viewers were told the series was canceled but weren’t given a reason why.

As a proprietor of Vexcon, fans were shocked to hear that Billy Bretherton left the family business and moved to Illinois in 2012, citing family issues. Ricky Bretherton, Billy’s brother, picked up where Billy the Exterminator left off, with a YouTube series in 2015, titled Vexcon the Exterminators, saying “the exterminators are back.” The YouTube series was short-lived, with only 16 episodes and less than 1,000 subscribers, but CMT Canada decided to pick fan-favorite Billy Bretherton back up last year for a new series called Billy Goes North.

Corus Entertainment summarizes Billy Goes North as “the adventures of Billy Bretherton (Billy the Exterminator) as he goes deep into the Canadian wild. In his new surroundings, Billy tackles bigger, badder pests, crazy, out-of-control critters, and gnarly animals that other exterminators can’t (or won’t) handle alone.”

Bill Bretherton fans in the U.S. had no idea that “one of the world’s most beloved exterminators and pest control experts” had even returned to the small screen. The official website of Billy Bretherton previously shared that Billy the Exterminator may not be returning, but Billy was working on a new TV project — with no specific details. Billy Goes North ended its first season run on CMT Canada in November 2016, as Season 7 of Billy the Exterminator, and now A&E is airing the entire season in the U.S., starting tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, as shared on the Billy the Exterminator on A&E Facebook page.

Fans of Billy the Exterminator are saying, “Finally!,” “Yay!,” and “Glad to see Billy back.”

The fanbase for Billy the Exterminator grew over six seasons, mainly because Billy Bretherton, who’s now in his late 40s, prefers to capture and relocate animals — using a “hands-on approach” — as a preferred method of pest control.

Season 7 of Billy the Exterminator has 12 episodes, as listed by IMDB, with the first episode on A&E, titled “Canine Cage Match,” showing a new mother calling in Billy “after a wild canine snatches her dog and hunts other neighborhood pets,” and later showing Billy as he “battles a feared predator and teams with a trapper to a group of squatters,” as summarized by TV Guide.

[Featured Image by Andy Kropa/Getty Images]

Share this article: ‘Billy The Exterminator’: Billy Bretherton Returns With New Season On A&E After A Nearly Five-Year Hiatus
canada reality TV
More from Inquisitr