The Untold Truth Of Pawn Stars Do America

"Pawn Stars" has remained one of the most popular shows on History (formerly The History Channel) for well over a decade because it can appeal to just about anyone. History buffs tune in to learn about the interesting antiques that appear on the show, hobbyists watch to see what unique and bizarre collectibles show up week after week, and people who just like wheeling and dealing watch to see some of the massive "Pawn Stars" payouts that go to people who bring in truly spectacular items.

Over all these years, fans have gotten to know the "Pawn Stars" mainstays like Rick Harrison, his son Corey, and their lifelong friend Chumlee. The dynamic between those three adds a whole other level of entertainment to the series. "Pawn Stars Do America" is a spin-off series that takes that dynamic on the road and sees the guys traveling across the country to find even more enticing items to potentially buy for their shop back in Las Vegas.

There have been plenty of other "Pawn Stars" spin-offs, but "Do America" has been particularly popular. The new series has engaged longtime fans of the show and brought in new ones by letting people all across the country actually take part in the fun. The show is a testament to the continued popularity of "Pawn Stars," and it might even have a big impact on what Rick, Corey, and Chumlee will be getting up to in the future. Here are some things you might not have known about "Pawn Stars Do America."

"Pawn Stars Do America" has been a great opportunity for everyone's favorite pawn shop employees to travel the country and see new things. The show has allowed fans to bring in items that they normally wouldn't travel with all the way to Las Vegas. It's also allowed Rick, Chumlee, and Corey to dedicate whole days to sifting through items in new towns, which they normally wouldn't have enough time to do.

In a 2022 Looper exclusive interview with Chumlee, he pointed out that even though "Do America" is a big change of pace for the show, it's not entirely outside of the typical "Pawn Stars" wheelhouse. "We have traveled many times throughout the years to do road deals," he said. Long-time fans of the original series can probably remember some of the rare occasions when the gang has needed to leave their home base for particularly exciting items.

In the 2020 episode "A Dam Good Road Trip," Rick went on the road to check out his dream car, and along the way, he got to see some unusual things like a mechanical roper that professionals use to train their horses for roping cattle. More recently, in "Monumental Pawn," Rick set out from the shop to take a look at a 1966 Chevy II. "Pawn Stars Do America" has let Rick and the others spend more time eyeballing really unique finds that they might never have seen in Vegas.

Most people don't realize how much work actually goes into making a reality show. It's easy to think that reality TV doesn't have the overhead that comes with casting in a typical series, but "Pawn Stars" still has to recruit extras to fill the shop to make sure that every shot in the series shows a busy store. "Pawn Stars Do America" required even more work when it came to casting extras because the crew needed to find people in town after town, and sometimes they were shooting for six-day stretches. Of course, the people selling items on the show get most of the attention, so the crew of "Do America" found a great way to incentivize regular people to sign up for shifts as extras.

Extras on "Pawn Stars Do America" were offered $150 and free lunch for coming onto the set for an eight-hour stretch, but the real kicker was that they'd also get to bring in one item for Rick and the guys to take a look at. That casting strategy not only helped "Do America" fill all its shots but also helped bring in even more items that could potentially be featured on the show. Not every item that comes in for sale ends up on TV, so it's always in the show's favor to get as many people as possible to bring in interesting pieces.

Taking the show on the road for an extended period of time was a big change of pace for "Pawn Stars," and you might imagine that touring the country would expose the stars to all sorts of items that they'd never seen before. After all, people living in Florida or Massachusetts have to be holding onto very different antiques and collectibles than people living in Nevada, right? That's an easy assumption to make, but in reality, the biggest change for the stars of the show might have been the travel itself.

"We did see a lot of cool stuff on the road, but not very much that we haven't seen before," Chumlee said in a 2022 interview with Looper. He explained that being both in Las Vegas and hugely popular on TV means that their store sees plenty of items that a typical pawn shop wouldn't. After decades of working in Rick's store, Chumlee and the others have seen almost everything there is to see.

That's not to say there weren't some regional differences that were exposed in the new series. "When you're in the South, you have a little bit of different stuff than the rest of the area, because it's been around so much longer," Chumlee said. The gang might have been able to recognize most of the antiques they were being shown, but certain areas definitely brought in a larger volume of items than they were used to getting.

The fact that Rick Harrison and the guys have, to a certain extent, already seen it all actually comes with some perks. By this point, they're all experts in their field, and even when they encounter something relatively new, they know exactly who to call to get some deeper insight. That means that even though "Pawn Stars Do America" has taken the gang all across the country, they actually need to do very little to get set up in a new town.

In an interview with The Inside Reel, Rick admitted that he's confident enough in his knowledge of antiques and unique items that he didn't do much work ahead of time before hitting the road. "I didn't even know what cities we were doing," he said. "They just, like, plopped it down in front of me." Rick was excited by the idea, so he decided to just go along for the ride. He said that as a history nerd, he tries to read a little about each city he's visiting, but his schedule is so packed that it doesn't always work out. Most of the time, he lands in a new city and hits the ground running, relying on the production crew and his extensive experience at the pawn shop to carry him through.

Rick Harrison may be used to seeing rare antiques and collector's items on a daily basis, but there's one part of his life that he still hasn't fully adjusted to. The original "Pawn Stars" debuted in 2009, and over the past decade and a half, it's exploded in popularity. These days, Rick's as famous as any other major television star, but he still feels like an ordinary pawn shop owner.

"The fame thing is kind of crazy," Rick told The Inside Reel. He said that he's been recognized in different places all over the world, and now "Pawn Stars Do America" is putting him in front of crowds of people who know him as a star day after day. Everywhere he goes, people call out his name, and he doesn't have any idea if it's a crew member trying to get his attention or a fan hoping for a picture and an autograph. "That's kind of weird, but I deal with it," he said. "It's fun."

What would you say if your boss asked you to spend half a year traveling around the country with your coworkers? Most of us might shy away from the idea, but for the cast of "Pawn Stars Do America," it feels quite a bit more like traveling with family. In Looper's interview with Chumlee, he said that after knowing Rick and Corey for nearly 30 years, he definitely doesn't view them as just coworkers anymore. "There's not much you could do to break the camaraderie between me, Rick, and Corey," he explained. For him, hitting the road with the other guys is more fun than anything else.

Rick shares a very similar opinion. He told TV Insider, "We've always been close. We actually don't get tired of each other." That doesn't mean that they always take it easy on each other, though. "We rib each other a lot and tell jokes, but at the end of the day, we have a good time doing it," he said.

That's all good news for fans of the show. The first two seasons of "Pawn Stars Do America" have been a big success for History, and the guys definitely don't seem to be burning out anytime soon. It's likely that we're all going to see quite a bit more of this version of the show.

Rick, Chumlee, and Corey enjoy spending time together, but their cross-country travel for "Pawn Stars Do America" doesn't feel like much of a vacation. Rick has said that between working on the show and doing some other jobs, he racked up 160 nights in hotels in 2023 alone. That's nearly half the year spent away from home and constantly jet-lagged. You might think that getting to explore new cities across the country helps make up for some of that road time, but the guys have fewer opportunities for sightseeing than you might think.

"Sometimes it is hard, especially when you have equipment problems and are on set for 14 hours," Rick told TV Insider. More often than not, instead of searching for local hotspots after a long day of filming, he ends up back in his room ordering in or eating dinner at the hotel bar. After multiple marathon filming days, he's off to the next city.

That said, don't feel too bad for Rick just yet. He's a self-described workaholic, and it doesn't sound like he's looking to get out of the business anytime soon. In that same interview, he said, "My kids are always asking, 'Dad, when are you going to retire?' You know how nuts I would be if I ever retired." He's working his dream job, and if that means spending plenty of nights on the road, then it's all worth the tradeoff.

The second season of "Pawn Stars Do America" kicked off with the gang heading to Dallas, Texas. That trip in particular ended up being one of Rick's favorites in the entire series, but not because of the great finds that he picked up for the shop. Going to Dallas actually gave Rick a couple of opportunities to put business on the back burner and take some time for himself.

Rick spent just over a week in Texas, traveling between Plano and central Dallas to film for the show. That timeline worked out great because he got to spend the weekend visiting his daughter and grandchildren in Austin. He also got to indulge in some shopping for himself. The show ended up taking Rick to a blacksmith shop, and as luck would have it, he was in the market for a large anvil for some metalworking that he does on the side. Rick left Texas with an anvil and some recharged batteries after getting to spend time with his family.

Rick Harrison has said that he didn't have much of a role in planning "Pawn Stars Do America." For the most part, he just went where the showrunners wanted to go. But there was one stop along the road that he insisted on making. The Season 1 finale, "Sweet Carolina," takes Rick, Chumlee, and Corey to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and even though none of them had ever spent much time in the city before that episode, it actually had a huge role to play in all of their lives.

Rick's father, Richard "Old Man" Harrison had a huge role to play on "Pawn Stars" for most of the show's run. He sadly died in 2018, but his influence is still felt on the show to this day. The Old Man was actually born in Winston-Salem, so in a roundabout way, the whole "Pawn Stars" story really begins there. Rick himself was born in Lexington, which isn't all that far from Winston-Salem, but he spent very little time in the area when he was younger. "Sweet Carolina" acts as both a homecoming for Rick and a touching memorial for his father.

"Pawn Stars Do America" has had some real success finding extras by offering them the chance to bring in items that might end up on the show. People who want to be in an episode probably look back at some of the old "Pawn Stars" seasons to figure out what items have really impressed Rick and the other guys in the past, but that might actually be the wrong strategy.

In an interview with Distractify, Rick revealed that Chumlee, Corey, and he actually have very little say in which items end up making it onto TV. The reality is that all the guys are busy filming for hours on end, so they don't have time to meet and greet everyone who comes in the door. Sometimes hundreds of people show up to help film a single episode of "Do America," so the entire situation gets overwhelming quickly. Anyone hoping to end up on TV needs to focus on bringing an item that will catch the attention of the people working on all the behind-the-scenes logistics.

"I have staff there helping people," Rick told Distractify. "So if someone showed up with something really cool, they'll run over, like, 'Hey, you should really film with this.'" It's only at that point that Rick actually comes over to see the item for himself.

The stars of "Pawn Stars Do America" have noticed some regional differences in the types of antiques and collectibles that they see across the country. But in many ways, their various trips have also taught them that people throughout the United States have more in common than they might think. Most of what they've encountered has been similar to the types of items they see in their regular shop, and there's at least one thing they've found in every city in America. We're talking, of course, about Pokémon cards.

The market for collectible cards just keeps growing, and Pokémon seems to be a particular favorite. Ironically, this is one of the few areas where Rick doesn't really have any expertise. "Anything new – a video game, a Pokémon card, or anything like that – don't ask me anything about that," Rick said in an interview with Screen Chatter. "If it's older stuff, I know about it."

Luckily, as Rick acknowledged in that same interview, Chumlee has taken it upon himself to go to all kinds of comic and card conventions to really learn about the market. He's the shop's resident trading card expert. Chumlee has said that he's always excited to take a look at cards in new cities, and occasionally, he's even stumbled across something truly rare and valuable, like an uncut sheet of first-edition Machamp cards.

"Pawn Stars" is one of the most popular shows on History. That's a big part of why there have been more than 20 seasons released since 2009. Few other shows release at that incredible pace, but few manage to pull in as many viewers. "Pawn Stars Do America" is continuing the trend, and it seems like just about everyone who tuned into the original series has been showing up for the spin-off.

In interviews, Rick seems just as surprised as anyone that "Do America" has really taken off. Speaking with Screen Chatter, he said that the first season's ratings were so strong that History was chomping at the bit to get started on Season 2. The network also doubled the length of the second season, which is a pretty good sign of the confidence it has in the show.

That confidence has already really paid off. For a spin-off of a nearly 15-year-old series, "Pawn Stars Do America" has kept up a surprising amount of audience engagement. The Season 2 premiere pulled in close to a million viewers, and the following episodes were easily pulling in about half a million viewers each week. With numbers like that, the show probably has a long life ahead of it.

"Pawn Stars Do America" has already proven that taking "Pawn Stars" on the road is something that can really work, and that makes the prospect of an international version of the show all the more appealing. "Pawn Stars" already has an audience in places all over the globe, so it might not be all that hard to get people to show up to convention halls in foreign countries the way they have been all across the U.S.

Ultimately, it's up to History and the stars of the show to take the series further out into the world. At least one star is excited by the idea. In his Looper interview, which took place during the first season of "Do America," Chumlee said that he hoped he'd get the chance to work on an international version of the series. He said there hadn't been any real discussion of the idea at that point, but he thought that the popularity of "Do America" might help to get those talks started.

Just as Season 2 was beginning, Rick spoke with TV Insider about the potential for an international series, and he sounded much less enthusiastic about it. "People have talked about it, but I think logistics would be a nightmare," he said. Rick already spends a huge amount of his time on the road, so he's less ready to sign on to the idea. But, as longtime fans already know, if Chumlee really wants something, there's a decent chance he can talk Rick into it.