To guarantee cell service in the bush, the company bought Raw a 30-foot antenna. Scott Lomu and George Wright join our company. Jungle Gold achieved a worldwide audience exceeding 60 million Yeah, I just about hate the leads of #JUNGLEGOLD 8 min in. When I asked what he and others had made of the predominantly white film crew in their midst, he shot me a confused look. In many ways, the cast and crew reminded Tay of the Chinese miners, whod come to the area three years earlier and boosted demand for taxis, food, clothing, and bottled water. Big props to the crew if they really risked themselves like that to get the footage. As many obstacles as theyve faced, theyve also learned from them and made smart decisions as well. So, gold fever its addictive. The series chronicles the continuing efforts of former real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu as they mine for gold in Ghana in an attempt to pay off the over $1 million debt they face in the wake of the real-estate crash. Lomu and Macias worked construction for a Mormon homebuilder in Utah. Around 2.75 million viewers tuned in, making it the fourth most popular primetime cable show that Friday night. They say theyve learnt from their catastrophic, ratings-winning sojourn in West Africa. He and his friend George Wright had gone to Ghana the previous summer to mine gold, and what he was watching on TV was ho-hum compared to the most uneventful day in Ghana. Edit 2: It's September 18th 2013, I just went through and caught up with most of the questions here. Obviously, wed appreciate it if the gold prices were higher, always; however, were still feeling very good about the price of gold today. The entire landscape of the mining industry over the last year has changed dramatically, and so we encountered a lot this season. I think it would shock a lot of people to hear how encouraging they are, and how supportive they are. He didnt even sound convinced himself when he said to the blonde Neanderthal that he was going back to Utah.for what? The cast and crew hid at a nearby compound, where they discovered Wright was suspected of murder and the authorities wanted them arrested. Last year we were forced to use mercury which was really hard for a lot of people. The shows first season had been a hit, airing on Friday nights behind Gold Rush, Discovery Channels highest-rated show. But we were willing to wear our heart on our sleeve.. First Aired. As Wrights four children bounced on a giant trampoline in the backyard, the men explained that they had returned to Ghana several times since the evacuation, mainly to recover the thousands of dollars in equipment theyd left behind. I am guessing season two would have already been recorded when this article came out. The Guyana operation was expanding, and Mishleau valued Wright and Lomus years of mining experience in Ghana. We encountered a lot of stuff thats never been shown on TV. Akwesi was preparing to harvest his crops when the crew leveled them, he said. The two are former American real estate investors who lost everything in the 2008 market collapse, and are now over $1,000,000 in debt. Ready to get to work in Africa!, Jungle Gold may have enraged Ghanaian ex-pats and officials, but it was a hit with Americas 1849-year-old demographic. Class acts the two of them. As the wheels lifted off, the crew exploded in cheers. Both men had worked in Utah's real estate market, had young families to support and debts piling up. Months before the shoot, Lomu had paid a village chief $12,500 of his Utah investors money to secure a 25-acre plot of land an hour outside the town of Dunkwa, the epicenter of Ghanas gold rush. In the final episode of the seven-part series, the struggling pair are offered the chance to work on a large-scale operation for a rich Ghanaian, if they can raise $15,000. We really liked the people of Ghana, the people we worked with. Rainstorms and excavator breakdowns caused endless delays. She was crying hysterically. Airing in the slot behind Gold Rush, it had helped Discovery dominate the Friday night cable ratings. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . I have never seen the show. A fight breaks out and martial arts-trained angry George, as he was nicknamed, strangles the man until he passes out. But no one seemed to recognize them. So now I'm just leaving this thing open . George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. The Companys business plan also includes bringing capital and This show Insults the viewers into believing its a reality non-scripted show. The little gold they found went directly into equipment costs. Channel. The first thing George and I thought when we landed in Ghana was, "I thought WE had problems". If you take any human being out to a site where theres gold, and give him a shovel and they find gold there, theyll say, Give me more shovels, give me more people! Because its really quite addictive once you catch it. ", "This is a disgrace for a brand such as the Discovery Channel to glorify what these bandits are doing in our country. Tay, who at 53 resembles an older version of the actor Idris Elba, grew up in Accra before embarking on a mining career in his thirties. In November 2011, two things happened. Season 1. We work really hard and its really dangerous at times. This was never a get-rich-quick scheme. Our first thought was always: Didnt you guys see the show? A heated argument ensued. On the morning of May 10, 2013, George Wright woke up in the small Ghanaian town of Domenase to learn that the countrys largest media outlet was accusing him of murder. The Ghanaian government permitted Mormon activities to resume 18 months after the ban. The kids autism is just another excuse for the idiot to stop working and run home. It brought back a lot of stressful memories, Wright said. The heart and soul of this amazing piece of equipment are the people, Wright narrates. When the cast and crew arrived on the first day of filming, however, they found it crawling with Chinese miners. Reeling from the news, Lomu flew to Utah the next day. When I asked a 21-year-old local named Nana Jyamfi what he did for a living, he laughed: Im waiting for the Chinese to come back.. We are Scott Lomu & George Wright, We can't speak to other reality shows but are happy to share about ours and what it's been like. We just like to do our thing, it's all we can do really. George Wright and Scott Lomu of Discovery's "Jungle Gold" (Sundays at 10:00 p.m. The next morning, they passed through customs and boarded a privately chartered jet bound for Paris. Have you ever seen the show 'Gold Rush'? We do answer questions and stay in touch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDu1cQjqGaj-3wBYavW1Hg/videos. Theyre hoping things will be different this time. I'm honestly not a fan of Reality tv at all, I want to watch good scripted shows with compelling stories. What do they think of this? When Doyle learned the arrest warrant had been extended to the crew, he called for an immediate evacuation. Watching the videos, I got the sense that Wright and Lomu, regretful over Jungle Gold, were trying to redeem themselves by portraying Guyana in a flattering light. *Discovery Channel has been pushing this as a new season, though the May 29 new episode is listed as Season 2, Episode 9. Wright and Lomu step out to investigate. Were more committed now than we ever have been. When season two of Jungle Gold aired in August 2013, it flopped, competing with NFL for ratings. That November, Bill emailed the treatment to a handful of production companies, including Raw TV, the British company that produces Gold Rush. it was rated as one of the top programs on the Discovery Channel. Watch my interview with the guys and a clip from the episode: Watch: George and Scott of Jungle Gold talk robbery, accusations, GloRilla, Ice Spice, And The Carefree Black Girl Backlash, Karol G Tells Us About Her Most Personal Album Yet, Maana Ser Bonito, And Collaborating With Shakira, The Rundown: Between Cocaine Bears And Maple Syrup Heists, Margo Martindale Is Absolutely Thriving In 2023. They amassed large portfolios of raw land and residential properties throughout Utah. Most assumed they were mining illegally. For fun (I didnt want anything out of it, Bill told me), he learned the format for reality show treatments from a producer friend in Los Angeles. Gold prices were high, getting equipment was cheap. How could I not show that?. It may have been their worst nightmare, but it made gripping TV. Discovery Channel. . But as Reece explained it, a wealthy Ghanaian who owned land around Fahiakobo was willing to acquire a large-scale license himself and hire Wright and Lomu to mine his property. For anyone who thinks their decision to pursue gold mining is utterly insane, they explained to me how they came to this conclusion in a way that sounds entirely logical. Season 2. But Wright doesnt regret fighting back. The episode catalogued a series of ugly confrontations, including an illegal roadblock, the tense argument with tribal chiefs, and a risky back alley gold deal. Now, it seemed, Ghana was taking its revenge. Todd Hoffman, Tony Beets, and Parker Schnabel in Gold Rush. Wright and Lomu considered escaping into the jungle, but Discovery made the final decision. If the global gold price plummeted, many more would leave Ghana voluntarily, depriving poor mining villages of what had become a crucial source of support. It mostly comes down to the bravest of us all which is our wives they support us 100 percent. Before the men could start legally mining, however, the large-scale license had to come through. George Wright and Scott Lomu from Discovery's "Jungle Gold" visited the KCAL9 studios Friday to talk about season two of their hit show. Wrights wife, Marie, sat in amazement as her unflappably nice Mormon husband imitated Rambo: shouting orders, grimacing at the camera, and heaving logs out of the road, his every flippin' and shoot bleeped out to create a bawdier impression. After rainstorms, locals with nothing else to do had taken to searching the gutters for specks of gold. And were kind of a fast-paced, explosive show, and I do think we attract a little bit younger audience. Only the most coldhearted, inhumane person could spend more than an hour in Ghana and think to do that. There are plenty of other channels. Once the show ended, they pursued a few of the offers, but nothing came of them. It now occurred to him that theyd simply resumed filming after the August meeting. By paying for excavators and local laborers, foreign investors could split the gold profits with the companys owner. But he dropped out after a year to serve a Mormon mission in Buenos Aires. During a layover at JFK, he checked his voicemail and found it full of condolences from friends and family. The spinoff series follows the miners from the jungles of South America, to the mountains of Alaska, to the Klondike. In exchange, he asked Wright and Lomu to put up $50,000. The problem, as Tay saw it, was that most of the Chinese miners were operating illegally, meaning they paid no taxes and ignored environmental regulations. But they soon discovered a more viable option: gold mining. One Ghanaian commenter wrote, This is a disgrace for a brand such as the Discovery Channel to glorify what these bandits are doing in our country.. Now Wright and Lomu are the stars When the market fails where do you go? When Lomu suggested removing the miners by force, a chief replied: If you attempt it, they will kill you! The crew captured everything on film and loved it. BOOM! But many viewers of Jungle Gold thought exploiting Ghanaians was precisely what Wright and Lomu had done. Since completing the series, Lomu and Wright continue to He had some access to some land that Scott and I were needing, if we can come up with the money, so we had to come back home and figure out how were were going to do that. Etc. | December 22, 2022 Unfortunately, sometimes, some of those kids will turn to armed robbery, and theyll rob other miners. We have a full Biography, Photos, Theatre Credits, and more! Their wives are also dedicated to the idea of not just funding their own families but making sure Wallys kids and wife are taken care of. It looked like their foray into mining was over until they stumbled across Discoverys Alaskan mining reality show, Gold Rush. Gold, which ran two seasons on the Discovery Channel. They stop mining, protecting the environment and local communities. I think our audience got younger and that could be because we were advertised heavily during Shark Week. Lomu had heard that Americans could expect to buy gold in Ghana and resell it in the U.S. for a profit approaching 20%. is that truth, are they gone? The other was Wally Macias, a charismatic Mexican-American and former undercover narcotics agent in Kanab, Utah. Share. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. Near the bottom, he noticed a message from his brother Bill. We saw mining as an opportunity and used our cash to purchase some equipment. The next six episodes unfolded in similar fashion. By announcing gold existed in Fahiakobo on an international TV network, Tay believed Jungle Gold would attract other law-abiding American and European gold miners, slowly lifting the village out of poverty. Visionary entrepreneur and leader. Spoiler Alert, yeah, can't answer that, we were there for 4 months about. They hoped early struggles would lead to large profits by the end of the 10-episode run, benefiting . (Raw declined to comment on the incident.) (The agency did not respond to questions about the status of its investigation.). In April 2013, it premiered on Ghanaian TV. We partner with mines to digitize their precious elements. Language. When we first came to Ghana, we knew our investment could change the lives of people there, Lomu said. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. While Lomu and Wright couldnt tell me too much about whats coming in season two, what they did say sounded intriguing. 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