Video taking off 470x its usual first day

Fishermen rescue cruise ship pianist after hours in ocean off Catalina

Sean Norton and Grant Garrett describe spotting the Royal Caribbean employee in open water while returning from a fishing trip.

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CBS LA Story of November 9, 2026Trari Newsroom

No. 78 on the daily chart No. 3 on the News chart

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 1,624,161 views a day, 470 times a normal first day on this channel (3,453).

Newport Beach fishermen find Royal Caribbean cruise employee treading water miles off coast

Grant Garrett realized the shape in the water was a person. "I'm like, yeah, it's a human being. Stop the boat. Let's get all of our lines in."

He and fellow fisherman Sean Norton were returning from Catalina Island when they spotted a cruise ship pianist miles offshore. In CBS LA's report, Norton describes how they each took an arm and lifted the man aboard.

The employee had fallen overboard from Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas. Officials say he spent approximately nine hours in the ocean before the fishermen rescued him. Footage in Zach Boetto's report shows him seated on their boat.

Norton recalls the man's first words to him: "The only thing he said to me was, 'Thank you. I thought I was going to die.'"

The rescue report reached about 1.6 million views in less than a day, far beyond the usual audience for CBS LA's short uploads. But the fishermen's account is its center: a return journey interrupted by the sight of someone still treading water far from shore.

Newport Lifeguard Battalion Chief Adam Yacenda places the rescue well offshore, describing the location as essentially the middle of the ocean. The report says the US Coast Guard is investigating. The survivor's name had not been released, and Royal Caribbean had not responded to requests for comment when the report aired.

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