TV Q&A: Who covers the cost of digging on ‘Curse of Oak Island?’
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Q: Where does all of the money come from to pay for the investigation, digging, testing, machinery, manpower, archaeologists, etc., for “The Curse of Oak Island?” I know Marty Lagina is a millionaire, but there are a lot of people, resources and services on the payroll to investigate what might be nothing. And this has been going on for years.
— Diane, Clairton
Rob: My understanding is Oak Island Tours Inc. has been leading this effort on the island for years, and they make money now by selling tickets to tours (currently suspended because of covid) and merchandise.
Once film crews documented their search, a portion of the TV show’s production budget contributed to their efforts, although the proprietors say the TV show actually slows down their search efforts, per RealityBlurred.com.
By the way, although it doesn’t get a lot of ink, “Curse of Oak Island” was the most-watched cable entertainment series of the 2020-21 TV season, according to Variety.
Q: While the History Channel has come up with a variety of programs that appeal to different audiences, each seems to have a certain lifetime before becoming boring and repetitive or running out of interesting material. Each of their flagship series has approached the problem in a slightly different manner.
My favorites have been “Ancient Aliens” and “American Pickers” with the former’s solution being delving deeper into the government’s ignoring of the subject and the latter changing the cast members to include more females for both sex appeal and recognition of sexual equality.
There’s a precedent that certain subjects — like buying and selling other people’s stuff and “are we alone in the universe?” — will always have some audiences. But it remains to be seen if redoing fairly nice automobiles and digging hole after hole in the same place will be able to claim a similarly small group of fans.
I would be delighted if you would comment on where you think (or hear) the History Channel is headed. Engineering accomplishments and disasters, too, are destined to approach the same fate. Perhaps someday they might even produce a series of stories about History.
— Ed, West Newton
Rob: As noted in the answer to the previous question, the digging-holes-in-the-ground show, “Curse of Oak Island,” remains popular six or seven years into its run. And History Channel ranked as the 17th most popular cable network for 2021, down 12% from 2020, which might not seem great, but compared to sister network AE (No. 28 and down 32% year-to-year), it’s not so bad. Another sister network, Lifetime (No. 25), was up 4%. Among those three, History still does the best in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demo, per Variety.
Given the success of “Curse of Oak Island,” I wouldn’t be surprised to see more mystery-type shows on History, which does still have the occasional history program, such as 2021’s “The Food That Built America.” But I do think Ed’s assertion is correct that most of the programming now — and likely in the future — will be more reality TV-style, history-adjacent programming and not exactly educational television.
Q: I am so happy to see “The Amazing Race” returning (8 p.m. Wednesdays, CBS). I don’t know how they were able to shoot it with restrictions. Do you know if they go to fewer countries? That would make sense. And it looks like the cast is just regular, everyday people like when the series first started.
— Linda via Facebook
Rob: After the first three legs in the new season — filmed before covid’s spread — “The Amazing Race” paused the race and waited more than a year before producers were able to restart filming, which will be covered on the show.
When filming and the race resumed, the teams all flew around on a chartered jet to avoid public transportation, with cast and crew getting frequent covid tests.
And yes, they did travel to fewer countries, mostly in the Mediterranean, where covid rates were lower at the time of filming in fall 2021.
As for the cast, they are mostly everyday people with the exception of a few social media/YouTube stars.
Q: Will “Crime Scene Kitchen” on Fox be back? I kind of liked it. Chef Curtis Stone was on it.
— Gena, via Facebook
Rob: It’s in limbo, and no decision has been made yet about whether “Crime Scene Kitchen” will return.