Gold Rush Fans Have Crowned A New Favorite Spin-Off

Discovery's "Gold Rush" has become a surprise hit, as audiences can't get enough of the drama that goes on between the various miners and companies who are all hoping to get lucky and get their hands on a fortune. The main show is currently on Season 12, which is genuinely quite impressive, and it's also led to a number of spin-off shows that focus on some of the larger-than-life stars who go off on their own. 

One of the spin-off series is "Gold Rush: Parker's Trail" which follows Parker Schnabel — who owns Big Nugget Mine — as he travels in the footsteps of his grandfather, former "Gold Rush" star John Schnabel. Another spin-off, "Gold Rush: Dave Turin's Lost Mine," sees the former member of the Hoffman crew strike out on his own to dig through old western mines. There's also "Gold Rush: White Water" and "Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue." 

Clearly, the network has figured out a winning formula of hooking fans in by following individual cast members in their own ventures. It's like the Gold Rush-iverse. But there's another "Gold Rush" spin-off which really digs into the behind-the-scenes drama that goes on between all the miners, and fans have crowned it as their new favorite sister show.

"Gold Rush: The Dirt" takes audiences behind-the-scenes of the main show and unearths all the juicy secrets about the miners — but the onsite episodes offer an alternative look at all the mining action itself. Fans on Reddit recently spoke about why they love the onsite episodes of "The Dirt," with u/mudpupper writing "Funny that a show about behind the scenes gold mining needs a sister show about even more behind the scenes is what we are really wanting these days." The Redditor also added that they loved seeing all the details and learning about simple things like transportation, eating, and other aspects of the miners' environment, rather than the ramped up drama in the original series. They then noted what they're excited to see more from, saying "Can't wait for the Dirt to visit Fred's operation. That will be interesting."

Another Redditor, u/innocent_bystander, echoed the sentiment, adding that the studio episodes of "The Dirt" "are largely a rehash of prior shows and video." They also said that it's refreshing to see the action without the sleek editing of the main show, explaining, "It's interesting to see them all talk and wander around the sites without all the post-processing." In particular, u/innocent_bystander pointed out that the original show, "Gold Rush," doesn't make it clear how loud the work really is: "For example, at one point Parker and the host walked up to Slucifer, and you could really hear how loud it is with all the rocks and dirt banging around in that thing while it's sluicing."

All in all, fans of "Gold Rush" think it's details like that which make "The Dirt" a must watch spin-off series.