While the hit Discovery Channel series “Gold Rush” tends to appear more like a documentary-style show, it still hits many of the same beats as traditional reality shows like “Real Housewives” or “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
The “Gold Rush” franchise follows various mining crews across the country as they search for gold and battle dangerous conditions along the way. Because of their laborious work and conscious efforts to appear natural on camera, it’s easy to believe that they’re just regular people who happen to be on TV. No matter how much of the show is real, though, it’s made to entertain viewers.
Producer Ed Gorsuch explained to Reality Blurred that the production team asks: “How do we make the stories of guys who dig in the ground and wash rocks and look for little bits of metal—how do we make that interesting year after year, and come up with a story that people want to see?”
Gorsuch explained how they make mining appear “interesting” every season and also revealed how the miners unintentionally throw a wrench in their plans.
Production has to ask the cast to say ‘gold’
As with any TV show, each season of “Gold Rush” is built around a central storyline. Ed Gorsuch told Reality Blurred that they structure the seasons around the team’s ongoing mining effort, “and then we try to bring shape or context to it, and hopefully make it entertaining.”
However, mining is a time-consuming process, so the cameras aren’t rolling 24/7. Production often asks them to reenact important conversations that they missed. Gorsuch also said that, ironically, the miners “rarely use the word gold” and must be asked to say it for the sake of the show.
“We have to prompt them to give us a clear sense of their idea, their plan, and use the word ‘gold’ as often as possible,” he said.
“We try to have our miners narrate the experience. We wear them out with our curiosity, but it’s so we get those moments of decision,” Gorsuch went on. “We try to capture it live because that’s really the best moments”.