Gold Rush’s Top 7 Miners: Christo Doyle picks his dream team

Who are Gold Rush’s Top 7 miners — or more like, executive producer Christo Doyle’s dream team? As much as he didn’t want to answer that question, Doyle put together his fantasy team below. In addition to his ranking, we dish with Doyle on the realities of filming the series, as well as the drama involved in following these guys.

But first things first, Christo Doyle gives no false pretense when it comes to his and the network’s relationship with these miners featured in Discovery’s top-rated series (airing Fridays at 9pm ET/PT). “We have absolutely no control of these gold miners,” he tells us. “We are in a follow scenario. We are fly on the wall.” That said, he’s also spent five seasons now working with these guys and analyzing their strengths and skill sets, along with their varied personalities. He knows about egos, impatience, who works good under pressure and who he would ultimately want to work with. He knows about his own struggles.

“By far the biggest struggle we have is working with these guys on what they’re doing and where they are going and how we’re going to make good shows,” Doyle says. “There are certain individuals who are harder to work with than others. Todd in the past has been very difficult to work with, this year he was an absolute joy to work with because I think he’s a humbled man. He’s a different man. Parker runs around like a chicken with its head cut off because he’s 19 and he turned 20 this season. And, he’s also very ambitious, so if you get in his way he gets very frustrated. And Tony Beets — who I completely respect — makes my life absolutely miserable, as he could care less about the cameras so 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.”

So who would be his Gold Rush dream team if he were working a claim? We asked the near impossible of Doyle, who honestly didn’t want to answer (It’s like picking your favorite child, but once you make it a business decision it’s different, right!?). “You’re going to get me in a lot of trouble here,” Doyle says, but eventually he lists them:

1. Freddy Dodge
“No. 1 on my list would be Freddy Dodge. I could talk to him all day about gold. I’m fascinated in where it came from, how it got to where it is, just the story of gold is fascinating and he’s built pretty much all of the wash plants on Gold Rush. There’s nothing he doesn’t know about gold. Have to have the gold guru Freddy Dodge.”

 

 

2. Dave Turin
“Dave Turin is an expert in moving dirt.”

 

 

 

 

3. Andy Spinks
“Andy Spinks is a dedicated worker, he would work all night.”

 

 

 

 

4. Gene Cheeseman
“Gene Cheeseman is kind of Parker’s MVP — a secret weapon. I would want to have Gene Cheeseman.“

 

 

 

 

5. Mitch Blaschke
“Mitch is an incredible mechanic. I would want Mitch as my mechanic.”

 

 

 

 

6. Tony Beets
“Tony Beets for his no-BS attitude. That’s kind of the way I am. I just get right to the point, I don’t have time for games.”

 

 

 

 

7. Christo Doyle
“And then I would be the mine boss. I don’t want anyone else calling the shots but me. Todd and Parker and all these guys think I couldn’t cut it up there but I’ve run businesses before. I’ve done blue-collar work before, while I’m stuck in an office right now part of me would like to be doing what they’re doing. I think if you surround yourself with the right crew and the right guys, which a lot of these guys have done, you can get any operation up. If I had those six guys, I feel like I could step back and run a mine.”

Gold Rush airs on Discovery Fridays at 9pm ET/PT.
MORE: Looks like Gold Rush’s Season 5 promises most gold ever

>>>Agree with his list? Who would you want on your team? Post your comments below.