‘Gold Rush’ 5th Season Debut Hits Ratings Motherlode For Discovery

The fifth season debut of Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush was Friday night’s most watched cable program, clocking nearly 3.6 million viewers — a nice jump compared to last season’s opening 2.9 million. Fueling the ratings spike for the two-hour kickoff: guys. The Gold Rush kickoff was the night’s second highest rated program on all of TV Friday night — getting edged out only by ABC’s Shark Tank. Shark Tank, for instance, logged 1.27 million guys 25-54, to Gold Rush’s 1.20 million. But, because Gold Rush was a two-hour debut, and Shark Tank only aired for one hour, Discovery finished the primetime night in first place among guys 25-54 — and guys 18-49, and 18-34.

Gold Rush’s opener also topped cable for the night in adults 18-49 —  with 1.5 million strong.  The network’s No. 1-rated series, about gold mining  in the Yukon Territory, trounced cable runner-up WWE Smackdown on Syfy, which logged just under 2.7 million viewers and 892,000 demo viewers.