Josh Gates

Josh Gates is an American television presenter and television producer who hosts and co-executive produces The Discovery Channel (and former Travel Channel) series Expedition: Unknown and also Legendary Locations. He is also the host of live specials for, and a guest investigator on, the television series Ghost Hunters and its spin-off Ghost Hunters International. He produces the related Ghost Nation series along with other paranormal television shows through his production company Ping Pong Productions. He was the host and co-executive producer of Destination Truth and Stranded on Syfy.

Josh Gates
Gates on location in Cambodia, 2013
Born
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materTufts University
Occupations
Notable work"Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter"
TelevisionExpedition Unknown and Destination Truth
Spouses
Hallie Gnatovich
​
​
(m. 2014; div. 2021)​
Children2

Personal life

Gates was born in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts to Lee and Sonia Gates, and resides in Los Angeles, California. He attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, co-majoring in archeology and drama.[1][2][3]

Gates married Destination Truth co-star Hallie Gnatovich in 2014. They have two children.[4] Hallie Gnatovich announced on Instagram in August 2021 that the couple had been separated for about a year and a half and their divorce was finalized on July 13, 2021.[5]

Gates is a member of The Explorers Club.[6][7]

Career

Destination Truth

From 2007 to 2012, Gates was the host of Destination Truth on Syfy. The series premiered its second season with its best-ever telecast, delivering 1.7 million total viewers and making the show the highest-rated second season performance by a reality series on Syfy. The series ended after its fifth season.[8]

In 2008, Gates traveled to Walt Disney World in Florida to meet with Joe Rohde, Executive Designer of Walt Disney Imagineering. Gates presented Rohde with a cast of the "Yeti" footprint found during a Destination Truth episode. The cast is on display at Expedition Everest, a Himalayan-themed, high-speed, coaster-like attraction where guests come face-to-face with a Yeti.[9]

As of May 2017, episodes of Destination Truth were being aired on Travel Channel.[10]

Ghost Hunters

Gates hosted eight live specials for the television series Ghost Hunters and its spin-off Ghost Hunters International (1 episode). He also acted as a guest investigator on four episodes. He produces the related Ghost Nation series featuring former Ghost Hunters members Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves, and Dave Tango.

In 2007, Gates hosted the Ghost Hunters Live Halloween special,[11] and in 2008 he made a guest-appearance on the mid-first-season finale episode of Ghost Hunters International.[12]

He returned as the host of Ghost Hunters Live in 2008, where he helmed the live seven-hour broadcast from Ft. Delaware, a civil war POW camp in Delaware Bay. Both seasons garnered high ratings and 2008's show made Syfy the #1 cable network in prime-time on Halloween night.[13] Gates also returned as host of the Ghost Hunters Live Halloween specials in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Gates also hosted Ghost Hunters Live 100th episode special from the stage of Saturday Night Live in 30 Rockefeller Center, during which the TAPS team investigated Alcatraz Prison.[14]

Gates hosted two round-table interviews with Ghost Hunters in 2007 ("Revelations") and 2008 ("All Access".)[8] Gates returned as guest investigator on a 2009 episode wherein Essex County Penitentiary was investigated, a 2011 episode wherein Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum was investigated, a 2012 episode wherein Hammond Castle was investigated, and a 2013 episode wherein Mission San Juan Capistrano was investigated.[15]

Expedition Unknown

Gates has hosted and executive produced Expedition Unknown on Discovery Channel after having moved from Travel Channel, since January 2015, and is in its 11th season as of May 2023.[16]

In 2020, a COVID-19 pandemic at-home variant of the show was created to fill the end of the season, and further network airtime, called Josh Gates Tonight, in which Gates video conferences with guests about travel and life.[17][18][19]

Expedition: Back to the Future

In 2021, a four-part special of Expedition: Unknown was created titled Expedition: Back to the Future. In the series, Gates along with actor Christopher Lloyd set out to try and find the six other DeLeorean Time Machines that were used during the filming of the Back to the Future movies, with the aim of donating it to The Michael J. Fox Foundation to sell off at auction to help raise money for research into Parkinson's disease.[20][21]

Other television

In 2002, Josh Gates was a contestant on Beg, Borrow & Deal, a reality/game show on ESPN.[22]

In 2006, he starred in Truly Famous, a series sponsored by Budweiser.[23]

In May 2012, Josh was in 2 episodes of Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files where he investigated paranormal activity.

Gates was the creator, executive producer, and narrator of Stranded, a paranormal reality television series that premiered on the SyFy channel in February 2013. Gates produced the show in cooperation with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions.

Since relocating to Los Angeles, Gates has appeared in a number of television advertisements like Coke and Ozark Trail. He appeared in a national commercial for BMW as part of a campaign launched by Publicis New York and BMW USA. Gates has also appeared in commercials for EA Sports video games, Dish Network, and Stanley Tools.[24]

Gates also works as a voice-over artist and can be heard as the narrator of Time Warner's audio-book of A Brother's Journey, a memoir by Richard B. Pelzer. Gates' narration was awarded the Earphones Award by Audiofile Magazine which celebrates exceptional audio presentations that excel in narrative voice and style, vocal characterizations, appropriateness for the audio format and enhancement of the text.

In February 2020, Gates premiered a new show Expedition X where fellow paranormal researcher Jessica Chobot and scientist Phil Torres investigate paranormal reports and other mysterious phenomena.

In April 2020, Gates premiered a new talk show, Josh Gates Tonight, where he videoconference interviews people from around the globe, including those previously featured on Expedition: Unknown, and, travel and adventure figures. The new show was created to fill airtime due to the interruption of productions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and could be filmed while isolated during lockdown and travel restrictions.[17][18][19]

References
  1. Salamone, Anthony (October 15, 2019). "Discovery Channel's Josh Gates to bring his "Expedition Unknown" experiences to Easton's State Theatre". The Morning Call. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  2. "Tufts Magazine Archive / Summer 2008". Tufts Now. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  3. "Josh Gates explores the world's legends on Travel Channel 'Expedition' – Boston Herald". Boston Herald (in Kinyarwanda). January 5, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  4. "Josh Gates Has 2 Children With Therapist Wife Hallie Gnatovich". March 25, 2020.
  5. "Hallie Gnatovich on Instagram".
  6. "ArchaeoCon: Josh Gates". Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  7. "Tales From the Explorers Club | Discovery Channel | Spectrum On Demand". ondemand.spectrum.net. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  8. Official website
  9. "Josh Gates presents Yeti footprint to Joe Rohde". April 23, 2008. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  10. "'Josh Gates' Destination Truth' is Coming to Travel Channel". Travel Channel.
  11. "Ratings - Sci Fi's Ghost Hunters Live Halloween Special Knocks 'Em Dead as #1 Cable Program of the Day and #1 Cable Channel for the Night | TheFutonCritic.com". www.thefutoncritic.com. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  12. Futon Critic News on Ghost Hunters Live
  13. "Ratings - Ghost Hunters Scares Off the Competition with All-Time Ratings Highs! | TheFutonCritic.com". thefutoncritic.com. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  14. "Ghost Hunters Summons More Than 2.4 MIllion Viewers During Live Season Six Premiere". TV By The Numbers. March 4, 2010. Archived from the original on November 22, 2019. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  15. "Syfy ratings for Warehouse 13, Eureka and Ghost Hunters for the week ending September 13". TV By The Numbers. September 15, 2009. Archived from the original on November 23, 2019.
  16. "Travel Channel Launches Series 'Expedition Unknown' - Multichannel". November 11, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  17. "A Spot of Josh", Josh Gates Tonight, Expedition Unknown, Discovery Channel USA, September 16, 2020
  18. "Expedition Unknown – Season 8, Episode 128 — Josh Gates: A Spot of Josh". Discovery Channel USA. 2020.
  19. Kimberly Nordyke (April 20, 2020). "Discovery Channel to Launch Virtual Talk Show With Josh Gates". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. Snlerson, Dan (March 1, 2021). "Watch Christopher Lloyd on a mission to find Back to the Future DeLorean(s) on new show". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  21. Holbrook, Damian (March 28, 2021). "'Expedition: Back to the Future' Recruits Christopher Lloyd to Track Down the DeLorean". TV Insider. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  22. "Beg, Borrow, & Deal". www.espn.com. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  23. "Reality Show Spoof / Comedy: Truly Famous". www.bud.tv. Archived from the original on June 16, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  24. Official website bio
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