The Discovery Channel promoted Friday's "Gold Rush: Live" as an episode with news that would change "Gold Rush" forever. For once, the hype lived up to the fact, as Oregon's Todd Hoffman announced that he was leaving the show.
Hoffman, who lives in Sandy, Oregon, has been a larger-than-life personality since the show began. When "Gold Rush" premiered in 2010, the hook was that Hoffman, his father Jack Hoffman, and his crew of Oregon men had suffered in the recession, so were chasing the dream of prospecting for gold in Alaska.
As the show went on, Hoffman emerged as its star. Fans rooted for Hoffman and his crew, celebrating him as an everyman who had big dreams even when his mining knowledge wasn't very extensive.
Others loved to hate Hoffman, making fun of his habit of issuing grand predictions, which often fell short of reality. In one notorious example, Hoffman led his crew to Guyana, an expedition that ended in failure.
Even as the show brought other miners into the cast - in recent years, the key players have been mining pros Parker Schnabel and Tony Beets - viewers still fixated on Hoffman.
Which means the fact that Hoffman is leaving the show as it nears the end of Season 8 truly does qualify as big news, even if it's not really a surprise.
For one thing, Hoffman has indicated he has interests that go beyond trekking to frozen locations for "Gold Rush." In recent years, for example, Hoffman has grown more drawn to singing.
And in 2016, Variety reported that Hoffman started a production company, with Jose Behar, a producer on the Portland-filmed TV series, "Leverage," and a former vice president of business development at Electric Entertainment, the production company behind "Leverage" and two other Portland-filmed projects, "The Librarians" and the movie, "Bad Samaritan."
The company, now known as ZUM Media, states on its website that it has offices in Los Angeles, Portland, Orlando and Denver. The headquarters is listed as located at 1306 N.W. Hoyt Street.
On the ZUM Media Instagram page, the company is described this way: "Development and production company specializing in premium, creator-driven content for television, film, and digital platforms worldwide."
Hoffman has previously mentioned possible projects for the company, including a reality series that takes greenhorns and gives them the opportunity to learn about mining gold.
On "Gold Rush: Live," Hoffman came out toward the end of the episode, to announce that he, his father, Jack, son Hunter, and "Team Hoffman" weren't coming back for a new season of "Gold Rush."
"This is hard," Hoffman said, with emotion. Nine years ago, times were tough, but as he saw friends struggling with hard financial circumstances, he said, "I believe God gave me a vision for 'Gold Rush.'"
Though he didn't know anything about gold mining when the show started, Hoffman said, he believes "we played a small part in giving hope back to America."
Host Matt Rogers asked Hoffman how he came to the decision to step away from "Gold Rush." Hoffman said that filming the show requires him to be away from home for six to seven months, and "it has taken a toll" on his family.
Hoffman said that despite leaving "Gold Rush," "I am not done mining." He then mentioned his production company, ZUM Media, and said its mission is providing "awesome programming for families."
"Gold Rush" Season 8, including the final episodes featuring Hoffman and his crew, continues Friday nights on Discovery.
-- Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com
503-221-8227
@Kristiturnquist