The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 is looking all but confirmed after a string of developments — including a record number of viewers tuning in and big hints being dropped on the show.
The series is History’s No1 program and the top cable offering on Tuesday nights, and we all know high ratings make a show hard to drop for networks.
But there are lots of other reasons why The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 looks set to be given the green light. Here are just a few of the reasons why we’ll likely see Rick, Marty and the team return to our screens later in 2018…
The team’s success on Season 5
Season 5 has been by far the most successful for the team in terms of discoveries — both in the Money Pit area and elsewhere on the island. But there are still lots of unanswered questions, and these are questions that fans and the team will want to know the answers to.
While a vast cache of priceless treasures or other artifacts is yet to be found in the Money Pit, the team DID uncover all sorts of other fascinating items in it including pearlware pottery, parchment, book binding and even human bones.
Meanwhile, what look set to be the two biggest discoveries ever made on the island — a medieval lead cross and a red gemstone brooch — were found on other parts of the island.
A lot more research needs to be and can be done into all these objects to find out more about where they came from and how they ended up on Oak Island.
The sheer number of discoveries also points to there being many more items of interest waiting to be found in the Money Pit and elsewhere. Where are the rest of the bones? Where is the rest of the book? Is there more jewellery on Lot 8 where the gemstone was found?
Towards the end of Season 5 the team hit what appeared to be a steel plate in the DMT shaft, named in honor of Craig Tester’s son Drake. What’s underneath that?
The search is definitely not over yet, and there are more than enough unanswered questions and leads to fill another season. In addition to which…
They have more areas of the island to explore
Now that the Fellowship of the Dig have full access to the lots owned by Fred Nolan’s family, as well as the late treasure-hunter’s maps, there are plenty more areas and leads to explore which the team will have a keen interest in investigating.
They were only just getting started on these during Season 5, including exploring the “ancient dump site” — where they found old metal hinges — and the apex of the swamp, where Rick uncovered a stake which boosted Fred Nolan’s theory about it being manmade.
Needless to say, with such promising starts it seems unlikely that the team wouldn’t want to explore these new areas of interest further.
Hints about a Season 6 on the show
The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 was all but confirmed in the penultimate episode of the fifth season when the team started talking about building a giant cofferdam around Smith’s Cove so they could make further investigations there.
This would be a HUGE operation and would take many weeks and months to undertake. Dan Blankenship and David Tobias previously built one there to stop the tide in the 1970s, but they never got to the bottom of the strange u-shaped wooden structure they found under the beach there.
The current Oak Island team would need permits to carry out large-scale work in the cove, but the good news is that money-man Marty Lagina seemed on board with the idea.
He said of carrying out further excavation work there: “It’s going to take a new cofferdam to do it. And a bigger one. It just means that we’re probably not going to do it this year because we have to recamp and rethink about it.”
The Curse of Oak Island remains a ratings winner
The show has been a ratings winner for History since the get-go, and not just in terms of the large number of viewers. A lot of those viewers are of the kind that are worth a lot to advertisers.
The latest season had at the time of writing been watched by a record number of people. But more importantly for History, a large number of those are within the prized 18-49 adult demographic which is so important to advertisers.
Why would a network drop their No1 show if more people are watching it than ever before and it is making them a ton of money?
It brings a lot of money to the area
Every year The Curse of Oak Island gets a big tranche of cash from the Nova Scotian government to help with filming. Why? Because it in turn brings in lots of money to the area.
Not only because of tourism, but also due to the investment in the local economy that operations on the island and filming the show brings.
In 2017, the series got around $1.5million from the Nova Scotia Business Inc.’s Nova Scotia Film and Television Production Incentive Fund. That amount was up more than 50 per cent on what the show got for Season 4.
If it continues to draw in tourists and bring money to the Nova Scotian economy, the local authorities will be keen to continue to support it.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that, in our opinion, The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 is pretty much a done deal. There is still a huge amount of exploring that can be done on the island, and plenty of areas and artifacts from Season 5 that need more investigation.
A cofferdam needs built, and we finally need to get to the bottom of what’s in the Money Pit. With just those two things there is more than enough to fill another summer of exploration work, which in turn will create more than enough content for another season.
Couple that with the fact that more people are tuning in than ever before and the show is a huge money-maker, and it seems unlikely that History wouldn’t sign on the dotted line.
What date would The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 premiere?
As confirmed by executive producer Joe Lessard in our interview with him last year, the team’s operations and filming generally takes place from late spring through summer to the beginning of fall. That’s when it’s warmer on Oak Island, so drilling and digging is much easier.
The footage from the year then has to be edited and compiled into a season. Ever since Season 2, premieres have taken place on one of the first three Tuesdays in November.
If the show followed that pattern, The Curse of Oak Island Season 6 would premiere on either November 6, November 13 or November 20 2018. We’ll keep this post updated as we know more. Sign up for our newsletter below for the latest.