The Curse Of Oak Island Cast Addresses The Show's Surprising Popularity

According to the team behind hit reality show "The Curse of Oak Island," an island in Nova Scotia, Canada — the Oak Island named in its title — hides long sought-after buried treasure. At the heart of some of the more notable rumors about the island is its so-called Money Pit. Conjecture about the Money Pit and what it might contain dates back to the 1600s, linking its riches to Captain William Kidd, a real-life pirate. Another popular theory posits that the Money Pit contains treasure buried by the Knights Templar.

Whether or not Oak Island's Money Pit does, in fact, hide historical valuables has yet to be determined. Regardless, countless viewers tune into "The Curse of Oak Island" every week to follow brothers Rick and Marty Lagina as they attempt to put this and other longstanding mysteries surrounding the island to rest while discovering some genuinely valuable treasures along the way.

The most-watched episode of "The Curse of Oak Island," during Season 4, beat out other popular shows airing in the same time slot like "Fixer Upper" and "WWE SmackDown." In short, "The Curse of Oak Island" is pretty popular. As it turns out, the Lagina brothers never expected the series to achieve the degree of popularity that sustains it to this day.

Rick and Marty Lagina, the brothers behind "The Curse of Oak Island," discussed the series' popularity in a video shared to History's YouTube channel in which they answer questions sent in by fans. At its outset, the brothers respond to a question asking them outright whether or not they thought "so many people would be addicted to this show."

"I knew it was interesting. I knew we'd been interested," Marty initially replied. "But I really didn't feel it would have sort of worldwide appeal."

Rick then shared a similar sentiment, revealing that he never expected the series to catch on with "the kind of audience that it has attracted," before adding that he and Marty are "extremely gratified that it has."

That said, Rick's disbelief at the show managing to reach such a wide audience seemingly came as a surprise to Marty. "I thought he was gonna say 'yes, of course I thought so! It's a super, super exciting thing,'" Marty said.

At the very least, then, Rick and Marty are modest about their successes, even after hosting a hit TV series for a number of years.