To kick off the new season of FX's "30 Days," host Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") chose to return home to West Virginia to work in a coal mine near Beckley, the town where he grew up.

"It was just kind of eye-opening," Spurlock said. "It's a profession that none of us really know much about or know what goes on, and we really take it for granted. These are people who are putting their lives on the line every single day to basically go underground and mine a resource that essentially enables you and I to turn on a light bulb every day. Fifty percent of our electricity comes from the work these guys do, and I don't think anybody thinks about that."

In each episode of "30 Days," a participant -- not always Spurlock -- spends 30 days in a setting outside his or her norm. This season, a former NFL player will spend 30 days confined to a wheelchair (June 10), an avid hunter will live with animal rights activists (June 17) and a conservative woman will live with a family headed by two gay men for an exploration of same-sex parenting (June 24).

In the season premiere (10 tonight), Spurlock lives with Dale and Sandy Lusk and works alongside Dale, a miner for the past 35 years. In addition, Spurlock talks with experts about the environmental impact of surface mining and meets with Peggy Cohen, daughter of miner Fred G. Ware Jr., who was killed in the 2006 Sago Mine disaster.

While Spurlock was filming in West Virginia last summer, a mine collapse in Utah killed nine miners who were using a mining technique similar to what Spurlock was doing on a daily basis.

"It wasn't talked about," Spurlock said about the time immediately after the Utah collapse, when the miners were trapped and their condition was unknown. "You could feel it. It was palpable the very first day we were in to work when these miners were trapped. Usually the miners are chatty when you're in the bunkhouse getting ready to go in and when you go in, it was silence. There was no talking on the way in. It was very telling, I think, in a lot of ways.

"When you're surrounded by these guys, it really is a brotherhood," he said in a teleconference with reporters last week. "They look out for one another. I felt really honored just to get to be a part of that."

Spurlock said the first hurdle in filming the episode was to find a mine that would allow it.

"God forbid there's a mining collapse in the middle of shooting a show like this. You don't want to be that company," he said of the worries among mine operators. "Once we found a mine that was willing to let us come in and shoot, we started meeting the miners who work there. We interviewed them and talked to them and we all decided Dale and Sandy were the right people for me to go stay with."

Spurlock said the episode doesn't show him going through the 80 hours of training required before he could walk into the mine. Whenever he films a "30 Days" episode, he said his temporary co-workers are often skeptical.

"In the beginning they don't know what to expect," he said. "They think I'm just going to show up and do a 9-5 gig or come in and do a couple of shots and then leave. Once I come in and they see that I'm there working every day -- and what you don't see is when the cameras aren't there I'm still working in the coal mine. ... If it's their life, it's my life over the course of doing this show."

Spurlock said the "30 Days" topics are pulled from newspaper headlines. The show's initial concept was for him to go through a new experience in every episode. But that would mean he'd be gone for as many months as the number of episodes ordered (six this season).

"I want to keep my marriage somewhat intact," he said.