‘Alaskan Bush People’ Returning In November, Matt Brown Breaks The News

Fans of Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People have been eagerly awaiting word on whether or not the show would return for another season. There has been much speculation about the reasons it may or may not make a return. Well, we no longer have to wonder. Thanks to a Facebook post from Matt Brown, we know that Alaskan Bush People will be back with new episodes, and they will air starting around the beginning of November.

https://www.facebook.com/MattBrownAlaskanBush/photos/a.859808670741201.1073741828.859806117408123/1106735282715204/?type=3&theater

Fans still have many questions, but the fact that Matt Brown announced the news may be a hint at the answer to one.

At the end of last season, Discovery included the eldest Brown child’s struggle with alcohol in the show. It wasn’t really news to viewers, as there had been many reports about Matt’s behavior that had many suspicious that he had a drinking problem. Back in December of 2015, Radar Online reported that the Alaskan Bush People star had been arrested not only for DUI, but also for fleeing the scene of an accident. After doing vodka shots and hooking up with a girl in a Juneau bar, she let him borrow her 1986 Volvo to go to Walmart to buy some chips. While there, witnesses saw him hit a parked motorcycle, something he denied. Neither Discovery nor anyone in the Alaskan Bush People family ever commented on the incident.

As recently as June of this year, the same site reported that Matt and the rest of Alaskan Bush People clan actually live mostly in a hotel in Hoonah, Alaska. Each of the sons has his own room, and according to neighbors, Matt spent a lot of time in the hotel bar drinking and flirting. After months of increasingly erratic behavior, he decided to enter rehab.

That decision was part of the final episodes of last season’s Alaskan Bush People. At one point, father Billy Brown approached Matt about some of his observations, commenting that he was looking really rough and seemed withdrawn and distracted. His eldest son responded that he was just exhausted and had things under control. He told his father that the family had enough to worry about and to not worry about him.

Later in the same episode, Matt told brother Gabe that he felt like he needed to get some help because he believed he had a drinking problem. The Alaskan Bush People family claims not to drink, and because of this, although he wanted to share his decision with the family, he felt weak and ashamed. Gabe encouraged him to share his decision, and although we didn’t see it on camera, he did so. He went off to rehab, and we watched at one point as Alaskan Bush People parents Billy and Ami waited to see if he would return. He did not.

Matt’s time in rehab is now over, and judging by recently released photos, he looks healthier and stronger.

In a post-rehab interview, Matt told People that he didn’t think he was an alcoholic, but that he saw himself heading down a road he didn’t want to travel. He seemed grateful for the experience he had in rehab and hopeful for the future.

“I learned a lot about myself in those 35 days. I’ve turned my weakness into a strength. In life, we all get lost every now and then and have to find our way back. Not everyone makes it back, and I’m happy to be one of those who did.”

Given that he stated that Discovery is “getting us ready” for a new season of Alaskan Bush People, it’s probably safe to assume that Matt will be part of those new episodes. Fans wonder, though, if Discovery will include any more about his drinking problem and time in rehab. For a show that is plagued by accusations of fakery, some believe that including it in the show to some extent could help diffuse those accusations somewhat.

We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out. There is no official date for the premiere of the next season of Alaskan Bush People, but it should be somewhere around the beginning of November.

[Featured Image by Discovery]