History's "Curse of Oak Island" finale averages 3.8 million viewers

[David]

HISTORY'S "THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND" DELIVERS SERIES HIGH 3.8 MILLION
VIEWERS IN SEASON FOUR FINALE

"The Curse of Oak Island" Ranks As Cable's #1 Original Series On
Tuesday Nights In All Key Demos

New York, NY - February 23, 2017 - The Season Four finale of HISTORY's
hit unscripted series "The Curse of Oak Island" reached series highs
with 3.8 million Total Viewers and 1.6 million Adults 25-54 on Tuesday
night, according to Nielsen Media Research (Live+SD). Overall, "The
Curse of Oak Island's" fourth season was the show's strongest ever in
Total Viewers (3.2 million, +9% compared to Season 3) and key demos
including Adults 25-54 (1.4 million, +6%), Adults 18-49 (1.1 million,
+1%) and Men 25-54 (862,000, +5%). During Season Four, "The Curse of
Oak Island" ranked as all of cable's #1 original series on Tuesday
nights in all key demos, including Adults 25-54, Adults 18-49 and
Total Viewers (Live+SD, excluding sports, news, repeats and
miniseries).

"We are proud of the compelling, creative progression of 'The Curse of
Oak Island' and its continued growth," said Jana Bennett, President
and General Manager, HISTORY. "The passionate and authentic
story-telling of Rick and Marty Lagina as they strive to solve one of
the world's most intriguing, unsolved mysteries is what resonates most
with our viewers and keeps them coming back for more week after week."

The series follows brothers Rick and Marty Lagina as they pursue their
lifelong dream of solving the 221-year Oak Island mystery. With a
manmade hole - the Money Pit - first discovered by three teenage boys
in the late 1700's, the island is believed to be hiding a chest full
of valuable items, and Rick and Marty are the most recent explorers up
for the challenge of uncovering what really could be hidden on Oak
Island.

"The Curse of Oak Island" is produced for HISTORY by Prometheus
Entertainment. Kevin Burns, Joe Lessard and Kim Sheerin serve as
executive producers for Prometheus. Matt Ginsburg and Michael Stiller
are executive producers for HISTORY.

[Obveeus]

On 2/24/2017 6:16 PM, David wrote:
> HISTORY'S "THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND" DELIVERS SERIES HIGH 3.8 MILLION
> VIEWERS IN SEASON FOUR FINALE

> The series follows brothers Rick and Marty Lagina as they pursue their
> lifelong dream of solving the 221-year Oak Island mystery. With a
> manmade hole - the Money Pit - first discovered by three teenage boys
> in the late 1700's, the island is believed to be hiding a chest full
> of valuable items, and Rick and Marty are the most recent explorers up
> for the challenge of uncovering what really could be hidden on Oak
> Island.

Egad....a show that is as close to being 'a show about nothing' as any
show ever made and the 4th season finale is getting record ratings? Why
are people so compelled to keep watching this snipe hunt?

[Michael Black]

The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio station.

It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.

Michael

[Ed Stasiak]

> Michael Black

> >
> The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
> some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio station.

I remember reading about Oak Island and it is pretty weird that someone
in the past for some reason, went thru a hell of a lot trouble and effort to
dig shafts and tunnels and build strange log structures and platforms and
other stuff.

> It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
> past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.

I think it’s because the excavation effort became so extensive, that it
requires all kinda cranes and heavy equipment and whatnot and all that
costs money the treasure hunters don’t have.

[anim8rfsk]

In article <a8f40cbd-2f3d-423d...@googlegroups.com>,

I first read about it 30 years ago:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-myste
rious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island

--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/

[Dimensional Traveler]

On 2/25/2017 2:26 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> In article <a8f40cbd-2f3d-423d...@googlegroups.com>,
> Ed Stasiak <esta...@att.net> wrote:
>
>>> Michael Black
>>>>
>>> The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
>>> some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio station.
>>
>> I remember reading about Oak Island and it is pretty weird that someone
>> in the past for some reason, went thru a hell of a lot trouble and effort to
>> dig shafts and tunnels and build strange log structures and platforms and
>> other stuff.
>>
>>> It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
>>> past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.
>>

>> I think it’s because the excavation effort became so extensive, that it

>> requires all kinda cranes and heavy equipment and whatnot and all that

>> costs money the treasure hunters don’t have.

>
> I first read about it 30 years ago:
>
> http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-myste
> rious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island
>

Sounds like they've long since reached the point where the only logical
thing to do is coffer damn the whole island and remove it layer by
layer. :)

--
Running the rec.arts.TV Channels Watched Survey.
Winter 2016 survey began Dec 01 and will end Feb 28

[Obveeus]

On 2/25/2017 5:26 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> In article <a8f40cbd-2f3d-423d...@googlegroups.com>,
> Ed Stasiak <esta...@att.net> wrote:
>
>>> Michael Black
>>>>
>>> The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
>>> some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio station.
>>
>> I remember reading about Oak Island and it is pretty weird that someone
>> in the past for some reason, went thru a hell of a lot trouble and effort to
>> dig shafts and tunnels and build strange log structures and platforms and
>> other stuff.
>>
>>> It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
>>> past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.
>>

>> I think it’s because the excavation effort became so extensive, that it

>> requires all kinda cranes and heavy equipment and whatnot and all that

>> costs money the treasure hunters don’t have.

>
> I first read about it 30 years ago:
>
> http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-myste
> rious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island

You'd think that by now the Lost Dutchman's Mine could get its own series.

[anim8rfsk]

In article <o8uj8t$cp3$2...@dont-email.me>, Obveeus <Obv...@aol.com>
wrote:

> On 2/25/2017 5:26 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> > In article <a8f40cbd-2f3d-423d...@googlegroups.com>,
> > Ed Stasiak <esta...@att.net> wrote:
> >
> >>> Michael Black
> >>>>
> >>> The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
> >>> some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio
> >>> station.
> >>
> >> I remember reading about Oak Island and it is pretty weird that someone
> >> in the past for some reason, went thru a hell of a lot trouble and effort
> >> to
> >> dig shafts and tunnels and build strange log structures and platforms and
> >> other stuff.
> >>
> >>> It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
> >>> past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.
> >>

> >> I think it⤁s because the excavation effort became so extensive, that it

> >> requires all kinda cranes and heavy equipment and whatnot and all that

> >> costs money the treasure hunters don⤁t have.

> >
> > I first read about it 30 years ago:
> >
> > http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-myste
> > rious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island
>
> You'd think that by now the Lost Dutchman's Mine could get its own series.

heh

[Bruce Esquibel]

Obveeus <Obv...@aol.com> wrote:

> Egad....a show that is as close to being 'a show about nothing' as any
> show ever made and the 4th season finale is getting record ratings? Why
> are people so compelled to keep watching this snipe hunt?

Well, with people like me, it's a combination of morbid curiousity and
traditional family values.

I remember reading the late 60's Readers Digest version of the book (the
condensed version of course) and that was because apparently my dad and his
brothers in the 1950's fell for these Uranium mine scams where for just a
$1000 investment you could become a millionaire by investing in some company
who 24x7x365 were looking for that one deposit where the government would
buy all that could be had (for nuclear weapons).

I guess at some point they realized these companies didn't own a shovel
besides owning any land to mine on. But they were always so close to the
motherlode, just another $1000 could pay off big time.

Anyway, the one thing about the Oak Island show that bugs the shit out of me
isn't the fact that there is nothing there and nothing will ever be, but
it's the fact that nothing is ever explained how it possibly could be there.

These guys (and whoever were before them for the past 100+ years) are using
what is state-of-the-art hardware, mining equipment, sonar, metal detectors,
divers, cameras beside the big drilling hardware and bulldozers.

Now this "treasure" was supposed to be buried there around the year 1600.
Think about what they guys on Oak Island are talking about with the
complexity of all of it, hidden chambers, tunnels that flood if disturbed,
water filters using coconut bark or some shit, a man made swamp, giant
boulders in some pattern.

Who exactly in 1600 using what tools could pull off anything like that?

I mean how the pyramids were built isn't a known fact either, but
technically those are just rocks (big ones) stacked upon each other.

This on the other hand is being passed off as some engineering marvel but
yet not a single theory how it could of been done.

Slaves? Thousands of them?

If so, where is the mass grave yard? I mean if you are going to bury
millions of dollars of gold in secret using boat loads of slaves, are you
really going to keep them alive afterwards? I supposed they could of just
tossed them into the ocean on the way back, but it seems like there would
still be some site or settlement that housed them for quite some time.

On the show they make it sound like there were 3 or 4 dudes from the Knights
of Templar that somehow pulled all of this off in a few days, but you know
damn well it couldn't happen that way.

It was never clear on the show if the two brothers are financing this whole
thing with that business the one is always leaving to tend to but I'll bet
somewhere around there is an "Oak Island Venture Capital Fund" where you
too, like my family did with uranium can get into a gold mine, literally, we
just need another $10K, won't you help?

I have the feeling if there is a payoff, it'll be like one of those class
action lawsuits where the lawyers get the bulk of the funds and everyone
else has to do with the $5 Subway gift card.

-bruce
b...@ripco.com

[Michael Black]

On Sat, 25 Feb 2017, anim8rfsk wrote:

> In article <a8f40cbd-2f3d-423d...@googlegroups.com>,
> Ed Stasiak <esta...@att.net> wrote:
>
>>> Michael Black
>>>>
>>> The first time I heard about Oak Island was about 1986, thirty years ago,
>>> some author out with a book and talking about it on a local radio station.
>>
>> I remember reading about Oak Island and it is pretty weird that someone
>> in the past for some reason, went thru a hell of a lot trouble and effort to
>> dig shafts and tunnels and build strange log structures and platforms and
>> other stuff.
>>
>>> It had already been going on "forever" a that point, and it kept on these
>>> past thirty years, yet nothing seems to be happening.
>>

>> I think it???s because the excavation effort became so extensive, that it

>> requires all kinda cranes and heavy equipment and whatnot and all that

>> costs money the treasure hunters don???t have.

>
> I first read about it 30 years ago:
>
> http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-myste
> rious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island
>

Maybe any treasure hunters get kickbacks. "This is too important to
actually solve, so we'll let you dig away, but you only get some money if
you don't find anything. We need this story to attract others".

Michael

[Michael Black]

You get points for using "coffer dam" properly, though I think it is dam,
while "damn" is swearing.

Since it's already so saturated with tunnels and diggings, collapsing it
all probably can't be any worse.

Michael

[Michael Black]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2017, Bruce Esquibel wrote:

> Obveeus <Obv...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> Egad....a show that is as close to being 'a show about nothing' as any
>> show ever made and the 4th season finale is getting record ratings? Why
>> are people so compelled to keep watching this snipe hunt?
>
> Well, with people like me, it's a combination of morbid curiousity and
> traditional family values.
>
> I remember reading the late 60's Readers Digest version of the book (the
> condensed version of course) and that was because apparently my dad and his
> brothers in the 1950's fell for these Uranium mine scams where for just a
> $1000 investment you could become a millionaire by investing in some company
> who 24x7x365 were looking for that one deposit where the government would
> buy all that could be had (for nuclear weapons).
>

I thought you were supposed to earn your fortune from uranium by
prospecting for yourself?

I have a magazine format "book" from Fawcett Publications in the fifties
about uranium prospecting, what you need and where to look, etc. That
sort of thing was big for a bit, I think we saw references to "uranium
prospecting" on tv shows (the Canadian show "The Forest Rangers" for kids
might have had one such reference). And then it was gone, the place for
lone wolves gone.

Michael

[Ed Stasiak]

> Bruce Esquibel

>
> Think about what they guys on Oak Island are talking about with the
> complexity of all of it, hidden chambers, tunnels that flood if disturbed,
> water filters using coconut bark or some shit, a man made swamp, giant
> boulders in some pattern.
>
> Who exactly in 1600 using what tools could pull off anything like that?

This website runs down the story and has some diagrams of what
was built on Oak Island, which wasn’t very complicated and could
be done with tech of the period, thou admittedly with a shit load of
manual labor;

http://stillwoods.blogspot.ca/2013/11/oak-island-treasure-ch-7.html

“By 1849 the story had become merely a tradition or legend; and then, to every one's surprise, another company was formed and once again the vicinity of the "Money Pit," as it was called, hummed with activity. Pumps and methods which, forty years earlier, had been unknown, began emptying the shaft of water until it was clear to a depth of eighty-six feet. And then, just as everybody concerned saw success in sight, the flood came back with a rush and for a time put an end to all work.

The new treasure seekers, however, were men who possessed common sense even if they were not engineers. The most important matter, they reasoned, was to discover whether or not there actually was a treasure in the pit before wasting more time and money digging for it.

So drills were rigged up, and they proceeded to bore for the cache as they would for a vein of coal or other minerals. A strong platform was built above the shaft and a huge auger-drill placed upon it. Rapidly the drill dropped until it struck the spruce bulkhead which Dr. Lynd had found at a depth of ninety-five feet.

Quickly it bored through this, and dropped abruptly for a foot. Then once more it began to bore its way downward, bringing up shavings of oak, until it had penetrated four inches. Then it slowed down, and for a distance of twenty-two inches it moved through loose pieces of metal, bringing up three links of a gold chain.

One may easily visualize the wild excitement that followed this discovery. Here at last was irrefutable proof that treasure was buried in the shaft. Here was actual gold, even if no great value; and where there was some gold there must be more. And, so every one reasoned, the loose metal through which they had bored for nearly two feet must be gold or silver coins or jewelry.

Meanwhile the auger was boring its way through oak eight inches thick; then it once more went churning slowly through loose metal for twenty-two inches. More coins, it was obvious, and just as obviously the four-inch layers of oak were parts of oaken chests in which the treasure was contained.

Every one was convinced of this most reasonable and logical deduction, and when at last the drill penetrated six inches of spruce and then entered a bed of clay to a depth of seven feet, all concerned felt that at last the bottom of the shaft had been reached.”

[Bruce Esquibel]

Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:

> I thought you were supposed to earn your fortune from uranium by
> prospecting for yourself?

You could, if you wanted to.

There is probably some way to look it up but somewhere in that time frame
(late 40's, the 50's) the federal government was so desperate for uranium
they handed out like 1000 acre claims to anyone who asked. The land wasn't
yours to keep but there was a guarantee they would purchase anything you
found.

The problem was, most of this free land to work was in Nevada which even
today is mostly desert with few towns within a 100 miles of each other.

If one wanted to "go it alone", you really needed to be prepared to live out
in the middle of nowhere, usually in 100+ degree heat.

The mining companies were just pools. Instead of making it a go yourself,
you could just toss in $100 (or whatever was a lot of money 60~70 years ago)
and become part of the team.

Some were legit, some not.

Speaking of "nots" and getting back to tv, there was another show similar to
Oak Island, either last year or 2015 called "Billion Dollar Wreck".

This one was far worse than Oak Island, was one guy who was convinced there
is some sunken ship off the coast of Massachusetts which contains a billion
dollars in gold, even though there isn't a single shread of evidence that it
did. He's convinced it was on some secret mission (even though it was a
plain passenger ship) for the U.S. government or some shit like that. He
used some logic like missing information leads to the truth. No one ever
denied there was a billion in gold, thus it could be.

Basically after 9 or 10 episodes they got a diver down to inspect the wreck
but ooops, they ran out of funding to proceed any further. I'm sure he'll
find it next time when more investors come forward.

blah.

-bruce
b...@ripco.com

[Bruce Esquibel]

Ed Stasiak <esta...@att.net> wrote:

> This website runs down the story and has some diagrams of what

> was built on Oak Island, which wasn???t very complicated and could

> be done with tech of the period, thou admittedly with a shit load of
> manual labor;

That "shit load of manual labor" was my point.

If you wanted to build a bunch of pyramids in Egypt, you had access to tens
of thousands of slaves. Same with building the Colosseum in Rome. Local
labor readily available.

Oak Island, not so much.

-bruce
b...@ripco.com

[Nancy2]

It does sound impossible for people burying treasure in 1600 to dig down so
far and construct booby traps and platforms...but what can't be denied is the legend
that six people have died, including 2 brothers, that the digging bucket has brought
up engineered chunks of wood, formed round posts and pieces of some kind of
steel, all of which are man-made....at depths of 150-175 feet. These man-made
objects got there somehow.

I agree it isn't the most exciting show on the network, but it doesn't hurt for us all to
stop, think, breathe, and quietly speculate for an hour or so. We don't require constant
mile-a-minute action in order to enjoy TV...or at least, I don't. ;-))

N.