Gold Rush: White Water may have returned to finish its sixth season, but things are not looking good for the future of the show.
Now that the sixth season of the popular water-based Gold Rush spin-off, Gold Rush: White Water, has finally aired and concluded the second half of its sixth season, there is renewed hope that the higher-ups at Warner Bros. Discovery will renew the series for a seventh season, and possibly even an eighth.
The trouble with the Gold Rush: White Water renewal
But before you run to grab your gold pan or get ready for another season, it is important to note that the network silence about the show has continued, despite the airing of these finale few season six episodes.
In fact, besides the announcement that season six would be returning to the air, which the Gold Rush Facebook page dropped without so much as an explanation in April, no new news has been announced about the fate of this series.
We would usually say at this point that all hope is not lost, because even though Gold Rush: White Water has not been renewed yet, it has also not been officially cancelled.
But we have to admit that the future fate of the show does seem rather bleak at this point in time.
Gold Rush: White Water’s release schedule so far
One of the other compelling tell-tale clues that Gold Rush: White Water may not return for another season is the fact that the last four seasons of the show have all premiered in November, as is outlined below:
| Gold Rush: White Water season | Season premiere air date | Season finale air date |
| Season 1 | January 19, 2018 | March 23, 2018 |
| Season 2 | December 28, 2018 | March 22, 2019 |
| Season 3 | November 1, 2019 | February 14, 2020 |
| Season 4 | November 13, 2020 | March 12, 2021 |
| Season 5 | November 5, 2021 | March 18, 2022 |
| Season 6 | November 8, 2022 | June 9, 2023 |
And, since we are already through the first half of this month and no announcement have been made about a new season, it seems like the Discovery executives may have just let Gold Rush: White Water die a quiet death.
Gold Rush: White Water’s biggest problem
While Gold Rush: White Water may still be one of the Gold Rush franchise’s most popular spin-offs to date, the series saw a significant drop in ratings when it eventually returned after its hiatus.
And since Dustin and the rest of his team ended this season on such a low note, without so much as a final weigh-in, the support for the show may just dwindle even more now.
Moreover, without fan favorites like Kayla and Fred, it seems unlikely that Discovery will be able to justify keeping this high-cost show around if (or when) its viewership numbers continue to decline.
Kayla may be premiering her own version of Gold Rush fairly soon
Unfortunately, even if Gold Rush: White Water is somehow renewed for another season or two, the show will be returning without Kayla Johanson. Kayla took to Facebook to announce that the June 8, 2023, episode would be her last.
And though this news certainly put a damper on the end of season six, Kayla did also share that she was considering possibly starting her own YouTube channel detailing her life outside of the show later on this year.
And if her solo-dredging posts in the last couple of months are anything to go by, it seems like this channel may become a sort of pseudo Gold Rush: White Water replacement.
Why we think the writing is on the wall for Gold Rush: White Water
The months-long still-unexplained hiatus in the middle of Gold Rush: White Water’s sixth season (and Tim Dalby’s rumored confirmation that the show had become “too expensive” for Discovery) was already enough for most fans’ alarm bells to start going off.
However, the most compelling evidence that Gold Rush: White Water may not be coming back for a seventh season, let alone an eighth, is the fact that the final few episodes of season six were aired in a later, less-prime timeslot.
The very final six episodes (seven, if you count the special “Golden Goose Chase” episode) of season six aired in the 10/9c timeslot after the franchise’s other spin-off, Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail.
This seems like a pretty clear indication that Discovery simply wanted to air the final few episodes of the show without even trying to promote it among the more than one million fans of the original show.
This would also explain why there was such a delay with getting the episodes on Discovery+.
