The unexpected reason why Jane joined Bering Sea Gold

Jane Kilcher did not know anything about mining when she joined Bering Sea Gold, but she agreed to do the show to help her longtime friend, Emily.

Although it is not completely unheard of for television shows to have special cross-over episodes with other popular shows – it is rare for these to happen within the reality television space.

This is why longtime Discovery Channel fans were so shocked to see Jane Kilcher, an expert homesteader and one of the stars from Alaska: The Last Frontier, join Bering Sea Gold as one of Emily’s new crew members.

Well that and the fact that Jane knew so little about mining for gold in the Bering Sea that she had to confirm whether “dredging” was really the correct term to use.

Why Jane really joined Emily’s crew

Jane’s apparent lack of expertise had many fans questioning why exactly Emily picked her for the job. But fortunately, these two friends have now set the record straight about how Jane ended up joining the cast of Bering Sea Gold.

And, according to an interview they did with Bering Sea Paydirt, it has little to do with mining.

Apparently, Emily reached out to Jane to ask her to join the team because she needed someone who she could trust to take over her dredge if and when she needed it during her pregnancy.

Jane made life on the dredge so enjoyable, though, that the two have now continued to work together for a few seasons.

Why is Jane Kilcher on Bering Sea Gold? A convenient crossover for drama’s sake

Jane’s run on Bering Sea Gold

While Jane may have been new to the world of underwater gold mining when she first joined Emily’s crew, she certainly was not new to the world of reality television.

In fact, before Jane joined the Bering Sea Gold cast in 2022, she was actually most well-known for starring in a different Discovery Channel show called Alaska: The Last Frontier (2011-2022).

All in all, Emily’s now three season-long run on Bering Sea Gold can be summarized as follows:

Jane and Emily’s friendship

It cannot be easy finding an acquaintance who is willing to take over your entire Bering Sea Gold operation on very short notice, but it turns out that Jane and Emily’s friendship extends way beyond their television connection.

Jane and Emily have shared that they first met back when Alaska: The Last Frontier and Bering Sea Gold were just starting to air on television.

And what brought them together was not only their mutual reality television fame, but actually their shared love for music.

For those who did not know, when she is not mining for gold at the bottom of the Bering Sea, Emily is quite an avid opera-singer. And this skill really helped her bond with her fellow Alaska-native, Jane, who is a skilled piano player.

Facing the backlash

While Jane and Emily’s life-long friendship seems to have survived several seasons of working together on the Eroica, her reality television fame has not come without its own choppy waters.

Emily took to Facebook on September 8, 2023 (before the beginning of season 17) to address some of the backlash that she had gotten from people online, after she joined the cast of Bering Sea Gold, stating “I am astonished how I get body shamed or told I am unattractive. Mostly by people that have no right to talk. Have I gained weight from covid and a divorce.”

However, Emily seems to have moved on, as a more recent comment by the homesteader-turned-gold-miner reveals that she has now lost close to 25 pounds and has decided to be “as healthy as possible” moving forward.

Will Jane return for Bering Sea Gold season 18?

The future of Bering Sea Gold is still very uncertain, as Warner Bros. Discovery has not announced any official plans to bring the show back for an 18^th season yet.

However, Jane’s longtime friend and part-time Bering Sea Gold captain, Emily raised some eyebrows at the end of 2023, when she announced that the production company had decided not to film new episodes in the summer.

Fortunately, Emily clarified that this did not necessarily mean that the show was cancelled, but we have still not heard any official update about whether the show will return, or which of its cast members will return.

And, at this point, it is still unclear whether Emily will choose to return to Bering Sea Gold (even if the show is brought back for another season).