Gold Rush Producer Spills the Beans on Behind the Scenes Drama with Tony Beets
Tony Beets made Christo Doyle's life miserable.
The Discovery's hit reality show Gold Rush follows present-day miners as they hunt for gold and attempt to make a profit out of it. The show, which is currently airing Season 13, has become a hit with viewers fascinated by the dangerous lives and activities of others.
And if there is one person who knows more about dangerous endeavors than anyone else, it is Christo Doyle, a veteran television producer for Discovery Communications. Doyle is an expert in the field of reality television. He has worked on many notable shows, but his longest-running production has been the Gold Rush franchise and its spin-offs.
During his time on Gold Rush, Doyle was often at odds with Tony Beets, one of the show's main cast members. In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, the producer, who has since stepped down from the show, gave insight into the cast of Gold Rush, highlighting the special qualities that made each miner an important part of the production.
Doyle noted that creating the reality series could be a difficult task, as it was challenging to capture the miners' work in a meaningful way while still delivering a strong show. Because the miners were not professional actors, the production had to consider their skills and safety rather than just what would make for an interesting camera angle or plot.
As a result, careful planning was required to create an entertaining episode that would keep viewers glued to the screen.
But some of the cast members, most notably Tony Beets, were a real challenge to work with. As it turned out, the Maverick gold mining legend was not remotely interested in playing nice for the cameras. He would disappear on the crew for hours on end.
"Tony Beets — who I completely respect — makes my life absolutely miserable," the producer said. "He does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. So if we need four hours out of the day to get material from him, often he's nowhere to be found and he doesn't care at all. That's our biggest problem."
Obviously, having one of the main characters behave like this must have been hell on the production crew, and it's amazing that Gold Rush managed to make it to Season 13 with issues like this.