L.A.’s Latest Reality TV Show Is Set Far From Hollywood

Television reality shows love to show their subjects partying at trendy Hollywood restaurants and nightclubs. How can your Nielsen ratings not rise when Kylie Jenner is gifted a Ferrari with a bow on top outside of Bootsy Bellows or when the cast of Vanderpump Rules shows up at Skybar? The Vanderpump empire alone is responsible for a surge of interest at Sur, The Den on Sunset, La Boheme in West Hollywood, and the Hotel Ziggy on Sunset.

But the latest TV variety show to shine a light on a beloved Southern California dining institution takes viewers to a fish market in the southern part of Long Beach, between an oil field and a marina an hour south of the Sunset Strip.

Kings of Fi$H premiered this week on Amazon Prime and the reality show follows the adventures of the Ungaro family who have owned the San Pedro Fish Market since 1956. Their original home was at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro and the location at the Ports O’ Call Village closed late last year. Developers are turning that onetime tourist attraction into a new shopping center with bars and restaurants, with some made of recycled shipping containers.

The San Pedro Fish Market held on through the first phases of construction but closed in March and moved to a new spot nearby at The Landing. They also took over a former Joe’s Crab Shack in Long Beach and have a third location in Wilmington.

The show, which has been a web series since 2015, follows four generations of the family as they bring in the seafood, and run their sprawling seafood empire.