Discovery has not yet officially renewed Gold Rush: White Water for a seventh season and it now seems unlikely that the show will return at all.
Gold Rush: White Water has quickly become one of the most popular spin-offs to come from Discovery’s Gold Rush franchise.
However, after the reality series’s unexpected season six hiatus, it seems unlikely that the network will renew it for another season in 2024.
About Gold Rush: White Water
Although the original Gold Rush is still Discovery’s most popular gold mining show, this show’s various spin-offs have also been picking up speed in the last couple of years.
Gold Rush: White Water, for instance, has quickly become a favorite among fans who prefer the added nail-biting danger of the whitewater creeks.
Unlike the original series, the Gold Rush: White Water spin-off, focuses on just one gold mining crew, led by the father-son duo of “Dakota” Fred Hurt and Dustin Hurt.
The two they try their best to uncover gold using a suction dredge in the whitewater creeks of Haines Borough in Alaska.
Why Gold Rush: White Water might not be coming back in 2024
The very first season of Gold Rush: White Water started airing on Discovery all the way back in January 2018.
And when this first season of the show managed to attract an audience of its own from the get-go, the network quickly renewed it for a second season, which started airing just a few months later in December 2018.
Since then, this spin-off has maintained its popularity and has been renewed for a third, fourth, fifth and sixth season between 2019 and 2022.
This is a feat that only one other Gold Rush spin-off, namely Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail, has been able to accomplish so far.
However, even though Gold Rush: White Water has been such a hit with audiences thus far, fans of the Gold Rush franchise will likely already know that good ratings and viewership are not always enough to keep shows on the air.
And unfortunately, Gold Rush: White Water was unexpectedly placed under an extended hiatus in the middle of its sixth season, which ultimately aired its last nine episodes and a special between April and June of 2023.
Although hiatuses are nothing new in the world of reality television, this kind of unannounced, sudden hiatus does raise some red flags about the network’s commitment to the series.
There is, of course, a possibility that Discovery could still announce Gold Rush: White Water’s renewal within the next few months, which will give the show enough time to return to screens before the end of 2024.
But with all of the radio-silence that fans have received from the network over the last few months, this just does not seem all that likely at the moment.
Everything we know about the Gold Rush: White Water hiatus
Discovery has never officially commented on Gold Rush: White Water’s mid-season-six hiatus (aside from announcing that the series would be coming back for the second part of the season in April 2023).
However, a Reddit user did share an explanation for the hiatus, which was reportedly posted by Tim Dalby, the executive producer of the show.
In this post, Dalby explains that some of the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery decided that Gold Rush: White Water was simply too expensive, which is why some episodes were delayed until the following financial year.
Expected cast changes for if Gold Rush: White Water does return
Even if the Warner Bros. Discovery team does figure out a way to make filming and producing a new season of Gold Rush: White Water less expensive, and the show is eventually renewed for a seventh season, not all of the show’s cast members will return.
This is especially true for “Dakota” Fred Hurt, who fans will recognize as the claim owner and the leader of the Hurt crew. Fred sadly passed away on July 10, 2023, after losing his battle with brain cancer.
Where to watch Gold Rush: White Water
Even though the future of Gold Rush: White Water is still up in the air for now, you will still be able to re-watch the previous six seasons of the series on a variety of platforms.
If the show is eventually renewed for another season, you will be able to watch the new episodes as they air on Discovery Channel.
But until then, all the previous seasons of Gold Rush: White Water are available on both the Discovery Go and Discovery+ platforms, along with most of Discovery’s other popular shows.
You can also purchase the show on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV.
