‘Gold Rush’ Star Todd Hoffman Insists He’s Not ‘Stupid,’ But Instead The ‘Mastermind’ Of The Show

Gold Rush has been one of Discovery’s most popular shows ever, and Todd Hoffman was there from the very beginning. Over eight seasons, the show has chronicled his band of “tenacious underdogs” through the Klondike, Guyana, Yukon, Oregon, and now Colorado. While fellow Gold Rush star Parker Schnabel and many internet trolls may mock the Hoffman crew, in particularly Todd, he is now defending himself.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Todd Hoffman explained that he is not dumb, and explains he is the reason the popular Discovery Channel show was made in first place. He revealed that it was he who pitched the concept of Gold Rush to producers.

“A lot of people think I’m kind of stupid. I’m actually not. I’m actually the mastermind behind the thing. I put the show together and pitched it to the networks. I said ‘Hey, if you want to follow a bunch of idiots trying to go gold mining, here we go.'”

The first year of the show was during the Great Recession in the United States. Todd Hoffman saw that a lot of his friends lost their jobs and were on public assistance.

Then, Todd came up with an idea on how they all could take this bad situation and turn it around: gold mining.

Unlike the Wall Street crash that left people without a penny, gold was now over $1,000 dollars an ounce and increasing in value. Todd had some start-up money and thought that it was time to “go for it.”

“I had about $200,000 left to my name, all my friends were on food stamps, nothing was going on, the housing market had just crashed but gold was taking off so I was, like, ‘Well, let’s go for it.'”

Jack Hoffman, Todd’s father, always had a dream he would get gold, and he had previously gone to Alaska to mine, with Todd in tow. Jack’s gold dreams diminished when the price of gold was so low, it was not worth the quest.

Despite some experience in gold mining, Todd explains that after the first season of Gold Rush, “he lost everything,” and only came back with “about 14 ounces (435 grams) of gold – which is about $15,000 – and 10 episodes of Gold Rush.” In the end, the real treasure was the new Discovery hit!

As fans of the show know, over the years, the Hoffman crew has had a lot of ups and downs. Todd revealed that they learned that they had to keep pumping money back into their business, buying bigger and better equipment.

“There’s a huge learning curve. You try to upgrade your equipment, you try to get better at what you’re doing. You learn as you go.”

In addition, this is a family affair, which he claims is his real “gold.”

A three-generation gold mining family, Todd mines with his father Jack, and his handsome 18-year-old son Hunter, who he insists is “better looking than Bieber.”

And even though he is gone for months at a time, Todd is still happily married to his obviously understanding wife Shauna. Despite the time he spends mining, he claims gold is not his top priority.

“It’s not my everything. I’m trying to be a good dad and husband and I’m trying to work on my faith – I’m a Christian, I’m not a good Christian, but I’m a Christian – so there are things in my life that are more important than gold.”

In fact, being involved in Gold Rush may have helped Todd find his own personal gold. As Inquisitr previously reported, Hoffman has started his own production company, and he is working on scripted and unscripted reality shows for the near future.

As fans of his social media know, Todd also enjoys singing as well. Perhaps his gold dream is really about a gold record?

When you realise it's 2 weeks until Christmas and you haven't done any of your shopping yet ? #GoldRush pic.twitter.com/CCcbJq3ujF

— Discovery Channel UK (@DiscoveryUK) December 11, 2017

Yet, the Gold Rush star says that there is something called “gold fever,” and he can tell if someone has it instantly.

“I don’t have gold fever but I have this nugget worth about $30,000 and when I put it in someone’s hand I can tell almost right away if they could develop gold fever. Some guys have it, some guys don’t.