Fred Lewis Knows He's Not a 'Gold Rush' Fan-Favorite: "I'll Take It for the Team"
Updated Sept. 30 2022, 1:51 p.m. ET
We don't know about you, but we're fully prepared to immerse ourselves in the newest season of Discovery's Gold Rush. For those unaware, the long-awaited Season 13 premieres on Sept. 30 with a shocking change — rather than mining for gold, the miners will instead return the gold they found due to skyrocketing fuel prices.
To make matters worse, Rick Ness and his team will not return for Season 13; instead, the season will be led by Parker Schnabel, Tony Beets, and Fred Lewis with Team Misfit. As expected, some fans aren't too thrilled that Fred is sticking around. On that note, stick around as we reveal more about Fred and explain why people don't like him.
Fred Lewis is trained to work in the most stressful environments.
After Rick left Parker's mining crew, newcomer Fred Lewis stepped in and took his place on the spinoff series Gold Rush: Parker's Trail. He started out as the team's special forces medic and security member.
According to his 2019 introduction video posted on Facebook, Fred is a Green Beret medic, which means he is "super trained on dealing with stressful environments." The then-40-year-old adventurer said he felt "confident as the medic and security person on this team" — why is that? Well, it's because of the strenuous training he did while in the military.
"I'm one of the best trained medics in the world," he said in the video, by way of introduction. "We go through about a two-and-a-half year training ... we learn everything from delivering babies, pulling teeth, [and even] delivering cows."
"I've gotten a chance to use this [training] first-hand in both helping villagers fix their ailments and I've also gotten the chance to use it in combat," the Washington native continued. "I think the experience that I gained in combat under stress is really going to help because out here in the jungle, things can go wrong really, really quickly."
Fred made his Gold Rush debut in Season 11 and has developed plenty of mining knowledge from his experiences.
Why do people not like Fred Lewis?
As most of us know, Fred is not a fan favorite of Gold Rush; in fact, he's one of, if not the most the most disliked cast member (and he knows it). In February 2022, the show's official Twitter account shared a behind-the-scenes clip in which the 43-year-old television personality read several vicious social media messages.
"Hey Fred, you suck! Your dog is ugly a–," Fred read from his phone. "Your son is the ugliest dog known to man. It's a shame they gave you air time ... You have to be ashamed of yourself to be such a loser, and your family looks like they're from hell."
Luckily, Fred brushed off the comments and jokingly told his fellow cast members that he'll take the hate "for the team."
According to Looper, the fans have "attributed their dislike of [Fred] with his poor leadership, mind-boggling decision making, and constant cringe-worthy references to his military history."
The outlet points out that in January 2022, a Redditor asked if anyone else fast-forwarded through Fred's screen time: "Don’t get me wrong, they are great people, but I can no longer handle the inept management or incompetent workers." Redditor u/Passan replied, "I absolutely can not stand him injecting any and every bit of military jargon into his conversation. It's f--king stupid."
