Gold Rush: White Water may have returned to finish its sixth season, but it seems like the odds are stacked against the show returning for another.
Getting to the end of Gold Rush: White Water season six was almost just as difficult as mining for gold in the whitewater creeks of Haines Borough.
And fans of the show had to wait through an extended mid-season hiatus (which lasted all the way to April of 2023) without no official updates on the fate of their favorite show.
However, now that all of this mystery behind-the-scenes drama is seemingly behind us, it is time to focus on the show’s future.
Why Gold Rush: White Water season seven is not going to happen
As always, Warner Bros. Discovery has not provided any official update yet about whether Gold Rush: White Water will be returning for a seventh season anytime soon.
But we can make a few educated guesses about what Gold Rush: White Water’s future holds.
If what Reddit users reported in January of 2023 is true, and the producer of the show, Tim Dalby, really did confirm that Discovery had decided that Gold Rush: White Water was simply too expensive to make (though it seems like this alleged Facebook post has now seemingly been removed from his page), it is very unlikely that the network will green light yet another season.
But there are also several other hurdles that may stop the show in its tracks even if it does, somehow, get renewed by the network within the next few months.
The Gold Rush: White Water air dates
So far, Gold Rush: White Water has aired a total of four seasons over the years, as follows:
| Season | Date announced | Initial air dates |
| Season 1 | December 2017 | January 19 to March 23, 2018 |
| Season 2 | December 2018 | December 28, 2018, to March 22, 2019 |
| Season 3 | October, 2019 | November 1, 2019, to February 14, 2020 |
| Season 4 | October, 2020 | November 13, 2020, to March 12, 2021 |
| Season 5 | October, 2021 | November 5, 2021, to March 18, 2022 |
| Season 6 | October, 2022 | November 8, 2022, to June 9, 2023 (mid-season break from January 3 to April 14, 2023) |
And although this history may lead you to believe that the seventh season of the show should be announced any day, the Hurt family’s historically hostile relationship with the network, the show’s continued casting issues, and all of the resources diverted to the other Gold Rush spin-offs, may just prevent Gold Rush: White Water from returning at all.
The drama between the Hurt family and Warner Bros. Discovery
Longtime fans of the Gold Rush franchise may know that Fred Hurt started out as one of the original show’s cast members back in 2011.
But just because The Dakota Boys eventually landed their own spin-off series in the form of Gold Rush: White Water, it does not mean that they have always been on good terms with the Warner Bros. Discovery executives.
Fred, Dustin and the rest of their team disappeared from the show in 2014, and he later explained that financial concerns fueled their decision to leave the show.
He said, “If you want a Miner, call me…….if you want an Actor, pay me like one”. And with the way that the network reportedly handled the show’s season six production break, it seems like the communication between the two parties has not improved over the years.
Gold Rush: White Water’s continued cast issues
Another issue that could prevent Gold Rush: White Water from coming back is the fact that the show’s drama does not seem to end when the cameras stop rolling.
Of course, Fred Hurt tragically passed away in July 2023, after losing his battle with brain cancer. But the show has now also lost another important cast member.
Kayla Johanson, who has arguably become one of the show’s most interesting characters, also announced in June that she will not be coming back to the show for another season, confirming that the “less than satisfactory results” and “unnecessary amounts of drama” ultimately sealed the deal for her.
The other Gold Rush spin-offs
While Gold Rush: White Water has always been one of the most popular spin-offs within the Gold Rush franchise, it did air alongside the franchise’s original show for most of this last season.
Furthermore, it never quite managed to overtake this number one spot.
Gold Rush: White Water also has to compete with some of the other, newer Gold Rush spin-offs.
Some of these include Hoffman Family Gold, which has just concluded its second season and The Dirt, which is extremely cheap to film and has remained a fan-favorite for 10 seasons.
