The Hoffman Family Gold Storyline Some Fans Think Is Totally Fake

"Hoffman Family Gold" (the latest spin-off to spawn from Discovery's gold mining reality series "Gold Rush") follows former "Gold Rush" star Todd Hoffman as he attempts to take up gold mining once more, having abruptly quit the series following its seventh season. Hoffman actually served as the de-facto series lead of "Gold Rush" through those first seven seasons, as the show followed his inexperienced attempt to break into the gold mining business and strike it rich.

Hoffman's decision to return to the brutal, unforgiving lifestyle of a gold miner may come as a surprise to some longtime fans of the series, who will remember just how much Hoffman and his family struggled during their initial tenure on "Gold Rush." The Hoffmans were consistently criticized by fans for their lack of experience, poor decision making, and ineffective management style. Essentially, a large portion of the "Gold Rush" fanbase considers the Hoffmans to be among the worst miners in the series — which is perhaps why some fans are claiming that their recent success in "Hoffman Family Gold" is completely fake.

During the very first episode of "Hoffman Family Gold," the team inexplicably discovers a large gold nugget while testing some of the soil at their new mine. This enormous nugget is absolutely massive compared to the little flakes of gold that the team normally digs up. Fans had a hard time believing that Hoffman and his family could have such good fortune at the very start of their expedition, and some have even suggested that the discovery itself was faked by the show's producers.

"Watched first episode of Hoffman Family Gold and that huge nugget they found in small test run defies belief," wrote u/Naz6700. "The odds of finding huge nugget and ton of flakes in test run are one in millions. Why [add] such a fake element to story?" 

They weren't the onyl ones who felt this way, as u/thebigcabige echoed their misgivings, saying, "As soon as I seen that I said it had to be staged." Some fans were a little harsher in their criticism, specifically attacking Todd Hoffman's capability as a miner. "The only way Todd could find gold is with help from production," wrote u/Clairemoonchild. "No other frigging way." 

All told, it's clear that fans simply don't believe that the Hoffmans discovered a massive gold nugget during a test run, and considering that "Gold Rush" already has something of a reputation for scripting parts of the show, they might actually be right.