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‘Gold Rush’ Star Parker Schnabel Tells Fans To ‘Make Your Voice Heard’ In Response To Sky, Now TV Possibly Losing Discovery

By Inquisitr Staff
Published on: 04:35 PST, Jan 27, 2017

Gold Rush star Parker Schnabel recently took to social media to tell fans to “make your voice heard” in response to Sky and Now TV possibly losing the Discovery Channel. Gold Rush is currently in its seventh season, which aired in the United Kingdom four days after airing in the United States.

Over six years ago, Gold Rush: Alaska premiered on the Discovery Channel as the most watched program in the U.S. on Friday night among young and middle-aged adult males. The reality gold-mining TV series has also been a ratings hit for Discovery UK, but viewers in the U.K. and Ireland may soon lose access to Gold Rush as Discovery Communications threatens to pull channels from Sky UK and Now TV.

TV Wise shared in October 2015 that Gold Rush showed no signs of slowing down as it entered its sixth season on Discovery, adding that Gold Rush was still Discovery’s highest-rated series globally. The Discovery reality TV series started as Gold Rush: Alaska in 2010 with six men from Oregon mining for gold in Alaska. A description of the first season of Gold Rush called it an “all-stakes gamble” for first-season cast members, including Todd Hoffman, Jack Hoffman, Greg Remsburg, Jim Thurber, Fred Dodge, Chris Doumitt, and Jimmy Dorsey. The men, from the small town of Sandy, Oregon, allegedly had little to no gold mining experience going into Gold Rush, but traveled to Porcupine Creek, Alaska, to mine gold after losing their jobs.

Only a few of the original first-season cast members are still gold mining on Gold Rush in its seventh season that aired in October 2016. Jimmy Dorsey — not to be confused with the prominent American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist from the early to mid 1900s — left Gold Rush: Alaska during Season 1, after a “rumble” with Greg Remsburg, who also left Gold Rush after Season 3, only to return to Season 4 to work with another crew. Dorsey, who’s really a realtor from Portland, Oregon, who “likes to do things his own way,” according to his bio on Discovery, went on to say that Gold Rush is scripted in an interview with Oregon Gold. Dorsey even claimed that his own exit from Gold Rush was written into the show for the fourth episode of Season 1, which, according to Radar Online, ended up actually being in the sixth episode.

But even after the fake drama that Dorsey caused for Gold Rush after his appearance on Season 1, loyal fans and followers have hung on for over six years, through six full seasons and into the seventh season, mainly for fan-favorite Parker Schnabel, who joined Gold Rush during Season 2. Parker Schnabel, 21, stepped into Gold Rush as a regular cast member for the second season when he was only 16 years old, after his grandfather, John Schnabel, decided to step down from full-time production and only appear as a part-time recurring cast member. Even after John Schnabel passed away at the age of 96 in March 2016, as noted by Legacy, Parker continued to be loyal to Gold Rush as a full-time cast member.

Continuing his loyalty even further, Parker Schnabel recently took to his personal Twitter account to tell U.K. and Ireland Gold Rush fans to “make your voice heard.” Apparently, Sky and Now TV are having difficulties negotiating a “fair price” with Discovery Communications to keep over 20 Discovery Communications channels, including the Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet. A Digital Spy U.K. forum shared two days ago that Sky had already removed the Discovery Channel from Entertainment Pass and Now TV, leaving Gold Rush fans in the U.K. scrambling for a way to watch new episodes of Season 7.

A report by the Sun on Thursday confirmed that Sky will not be renewing its contract with Discovery Communications, adding that the “cost increases being demanded by Discovery are completely unrealistic.” But in response to Parker’s Twitter plea on Thursday morning, some Gold Rush fans are saying they already have the problem worked out with other media companies who say the Discovery Communications channels “aren’t going anywhere on our platform.” Discovery Channel UK even thanked Parker Schnabel for his support, while other Gold Rush fans tagged Parker in saying that if Sky loses Gold Rush, then “they’ll lose me as a customer.”

[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]

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