I'm sure they get some discount by mentioning the drilling company's name 25x an episode.

From my experience and from my readings, it's rare to make money off these shows.

I'm positive they're losing money every season. The show essentially mitigates the financial damage.

I know it's not close to the same thing, but our shop once did an episode on the Speed Channel back when that was still a thing.

The build took over 6 months to do with periodic filming. The $$$ we were paid barely paid for the wages. Luckily i was able to score most of the parts for the project from sponsors. (I'm sure ol' Marty gets at LEAST sponsored discounts or possibly even free labor from some of these 3rd party outfits).

Had i not been so successful at wheelin' and dealin' with some prominent manufactures, we woulda lost our ass on just that one episode alone.

I got probably at least $30K worth of parts for free.

The Curse of Oak Island
 

The thing is though it’s been like six years. They have had countless episodes and seasons with almost nothing to show for it. If they are planting things for the sake of the show then they aren’t exactly doing a good job of it. And the stuff they do find isn’t exactly clear and conclusive to a certain desired outcome. They also don’t downplay the failures either which I enjoy. They have been comprehensive and honest with all of the searching and results, good or bad.

There have been more things than just the jewelry and cross as well. I think at this point they have proven to me something happened there and a treasure really was there. I don’t know how it got there or when it was removed (or if it has been but unfortunately I think it has been in the past) but there is just too much there to think this is fake or that something wasn’t there at some point.

Like what?

The Curse of Oak Island
 

Just from this show you have Europe and Middle East bones from 1600s, coins, carefully stacked stones uncovered in Smith’s cove, crossbow bolt, countless ship spikes, coconut fibers, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Plus lots of other interesting things that contribute to the overall story like Nolan’s cross of boulders, the natives in the region having an almost identical flag to a Templar battle flag, and some stones with peculiar carvings.

I'm really surprised it has lasted this long.

Considering these guys have very successful lives and this is just a side action ghost hunting hobby makes it even harder to believe they're still out there poking holes in the ground.

Do I think the island had lots of visitors in the pre-modern times? Yes. Do I think that its a really interesting story? Yes. Do I think that proves there is a treasure? Not even close.

There really is nothing to 'prove' a treasure exists. I think its likely the original diggers where BSing, lied about or falsified the stone, lied about what they found, and basically they are just digging up searcher tunnels.

Well you're in for a surprise when you see the next episode! They find the 90 foot stone!

Which I guarantee will turn out to be just an insignificant rock...

Me: I'm so done with this show, they are never gonna find anything. Forget it...
Narrator: Next time on The Curse of Oak Island:
Metal detector guy: Ooooooo, what is this..
Me: Honey, Set the DVR!

I watched several of the first season episodes. My conclusion??? The entire thing was about the next season and the next and the next.

They're never going to find anything, at least not 'this' season. ROFL

It's incredibly odd that they decided to take a trip to France to see those Knight's Templar drawings and then BAM! Templar cross just as the one they saw on the wall.

It was an odd, out of place turn of events when the trip occurred. Seemed completely random and for what reason? Seemingly, the only reason for the trip was to confirm what they found in a later episode.

Smells fishy.

The fact that Jack Begley has on the same shirt in every episode tells me it was all filmed over a weekend.

There are several examples like this that make it obvious they found something and then went and filmed a segment for the set up to the find they reveal in a later episode. They're not even trying to hide it very well. I honestly think it's a Canadian thing and they just don't care. Canadian film crews are absolutely horrible with recreates, b-roll, and set up in the outdoor industry as well. Up until recently, no one calls them out on it up there where if you pull that crap in the States every Tom and Jerry with a camera is jumping your shit online trying to knock you off your spot.

Have you watched the supposed stone find episode yet? Remember them searching for it long ago and the search seemed very boring and pointless in a basically empty basement? Now they magically found it in a separate part of the basement they didn't show us going into last time. It's as if they found it, or knew it was there the whole time, but didn't show us because they needed time for testing to be done in order to have the results in hand for a later episode.

If I wasn't interested in the actual historical content, this show would completely blow.

Yup watched it last night. Thought that was odd too. Or the "foreshadowing" they did at the start of the episode when they placed that marker stone next to the imitation 90-ft stone.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if we could find the 90-ft stone"

....then later in the episode....

Honestly, I don't mind that, assuming that the artifacts check out. I don't really care the order, as that is always (clearly) fudged within a season. I do care about the authenticity of the finds, though.