Treasure Quest - Season Four?

In the last few weeks, I have been asked about the new season of Treasure Quest: Once Upon a Time on Snake Island. As everyone knows, the first two seasons dealt with the Treasure of Trinity but has been moved from Snake Island and eastern South America to Bolivia and the Sacambaya Treasure. The Sacambaya Treasure is said to be three times as large as the Treasure of the Trinity.

For those who have been keeping score at home, the last season ended with those involved believing they had found a stash of gold bars in about four feet of water. You would think, if they had that sort of evidence and had been that close, they would have been back the next season, ready to recover that treasure rather than

The hotel near the site of the Sacambaya treasure.

telling the world exactly where it was. Wouldn’t that inspire someone, somewhere to attempt to sneak in there to grab some of the gold before Treasure Quest hunters returned. Contrary to what they claimed at the beginning of season 3, you could actually drive to that location. Unless there were guards in place at the site, I can’t see why someone else wouldn’t try to get in there first. Might be dangerous but those gold bars aren’t hidden in deep water and we do know the location… if they are actually there as claimed.

And what about the Bolivian government? Wouldn’t they have a claim to any treasure found inside the borders of their country? I haven’t even mentioned the church which might believe the treasure was theirs because it was mined by their priests. Or it belongs to the natives forced into slavery to mine the treasure. Wouldn’t their descendants have a real claim on the treasure? But I digress…

Overlooking all the historical and legal issues here, I would think that had a treasure been found, there would have been big news about it. We’d already have the answer, not to mention all the free advertising for the show. Who wouldn’t want to watch these guys grab billions in gold?

Here’s what I can find about the program…

It is produced by MAR Pictures for the Discovery. Their website provides a list of all the programs that they produce. The page for Treasure Quest is no longer there and seems to have been deleted. But then, I couldn’t get any of the other pages to load either which either means there is a problem on the site, or MAR Pictures is having trouble with the programs they produce.

On Discovery, there is a promo for season 3, which aired last year (2018). There seems to be no update on that. You can, if you wish, watch episodes there. And, it is implied that you can also watch them on Amazon Prime, but I haven’t bothered

Cappy Plaskett, who was in the first two seasons
but didn't make the cut for the third.

to look.

According to some sources, the show is popular enough for a new season, but you have to wonder if the production costs haven’t outstripped any other financial benefit. In other words, it costs more to produce than any revenue recovered… unless, of course, they found the treasure and get to keep some of it.

The new season is supposed to begin in March 2020, but I can find no corroboration for that start date. There is even some speculation that they won’t be after the Sacambaya treasure but on another “Quest.” If that’s true, then we have learned all we need to know about this whole series.

Let’s not forget what Cappy Plaskett told us about auditions and scripts and internal strife. This reality show isn’t about reality, but sort of an adventure series like King Solomon’s Mines, which was a good movie but not a reality TV show. We have the same thing here. Two versions of the show about adventurers searching for a lost treasure. It’s interesting, it’s fun, but it is also just a show.