The new season of Expedition Unknown still features Josh Gates as its host, but there is a surprising backstory to why he almost did not return.
Fans have been watching as the accomplished explorer, Josh Gates travels far and wide across the globe for more than ten seasons on his hit Discovery program, Expedition Unknown.
But, while it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Gates would be returning to his role as the adventurous and charismatic host of this show for the newest season, which just started airing a few days ago on November 15, 2023 – Gates actually revealed via his X (formerly known as Twitter) page that this was almost not the case.
Josh Gates’s near-near-death experience
If you have been keeping up with all things exploring (and world news, for that matter) you may have heard about the devastating OceanGate Titan submersible explosion, which claimed the lives of five people earlier in 2023.
Well, as it turns out, Gates had the opportunity to travel with the Titan filming the Titanic wreck before this horrible event.
However, Gates revealed that the submersible “did not perform well” on his dive, which ultimately prompted him to walk away from the opportunity on account of “safety concerns”.
And while Gates likely second-guessed this decision after his dive, we now know that this difficult decision turned out to be incredibly fortuitous for Gates and the rest of the Expedition Unknown team.
In fact, it is likely what has allowed them to return for the show’s most recent twelfth season, alive and well.
Some of Josh Gates’ best Expedition Unknown episodes
Before you get too excited to watch Gates and the daring adventures that he tackles in the all-new episodes of Expedition Unknown, it may be worth your while to take a look back at some of the most exciting episodes that he has hosted on the show.
Our ranking for the top five must-watch episodes from Expedition Unknown, so far, includes:
| Rank | Episode title | Episode |
| 5. | Buried Secrets of the Nazis | Season 10, episode 2 |
| 4. | Mystery of Dead Mountain | Season 7, episode 4 |
| 3. | Great Women of Ancient Egypt | Season 4, episode 7 |
| 2. | The Hunt for Our Ancient Ancestors | Season 8, episode 3 |
| 1. | The Secret Solved (actually, any episode involving the Secret treasure hunt) | Season 7, episode 13 |
Josh Gates has a personal connection to one of the victims
The Titan submersible explosion was an incredibly tragic event, which sent shockwaves all around the world. It even caused OceanGate to suspend “all exploration and commercial operations” for the foreseeable future.
However, after sharing his own experience with this company, Gates revealed that he has a somewhat close connection to Hamish Harding, one of the victims who was onboard the submersible at the time of the explosion.
Gates, who later explained that he had nothing but “Admiration and prayers for the passengers aboard” is actually a member of the Explorer’s Club.
The Explorer’s Club is an incredibly prestigious organization, dedicated to exploration and scientific advancement, to which Hamish also belonged before his death.
Josh Gates’ take on the whole situation
Although Gates decided to abandon his plans to dive down to the Titanic wreck to film, he is still an avid explorer at heart.
And as an avid subsea archaeologist himself, Gates was quick to defend his fellow explorers when his followers questioned why anyone would want to dive down to the wreck in the first place.
In Gates’s opinion, the answer to this question is quite simple, as the Titanic is like “a time capsule to another era of our history”.
According to Gates, this window into the past is the entire reason why the Titanic has always occupied a space in popular culture and why many explorers brave the deep, open waters just for a chance to see what this sunken piece of history may hold.
All about Expedition Unknown’s brand-new season
In case you missed it, the exciting twelfth season of Expedition Unknown has officially started airing on The Discovery Channel.
This season’s first episode, titled “Missing Heroes of WW2” premiered on November 15, 2023. In this episode, Gates partners with Project Recover to locate 40 planes and the hundreds of American soldiers lost in Operation Hailstone.
In the rest of the season, Gates will also travel outside of America, to Mexico, the Canary islands, and even parts of the Caribbean in search of answers, bits of lost history, and treasure.
And if all of this is still not exciting enough, Gates is also taking his show on the road.
Josh Gates Live follows Gates as he explains some of his greatest adventures (and biggest misadventures) live and in-person.
