Josh Gates, star of ‘Destination Truth,’ talks about Bigfoot, ghosts, hanging coffins

Josh Gates, host of Syfy’s Destination Truth, knows how to pique the interest of viewers. When the world throws him a question mark, he needs to investigate with his trusted team of researchers.

Gates’ expeditions, which have taken him around the world and back, have made for interesting, thought-provoking television. From the legend of Bigfoot to the mythical creatures of southeast Asia, danger very well may be his middle name.

Even though he’s braved the elements and encountered hellish travel conditions on his quests, some of the biggest challenges of the series are the reality competition on TV. “There are a lot of different reality shows out there,” Gates said recently during a conference call with journalists. “But also there’s just a lot of programming out there in general about everything. And so I think you can’t get too caught up in trying to think your way through differentiating yourself from everybody because everybody is naturally, you know, different. And there’s just so much programming out there that I think you’d drive yourself crazy.”

In his mind, what sets Destination Truth apart is its unique format. “It’s a format that has to do with having fun, there’s a lot of comedy in Destination Truth, there’s a lot of hijinks and misadventure,” he said. “It’s a very inviting series. We really want the viewer to feel like they’re out there with us.

“There’s a lot of … crypto programming out there that is very earnest and very serious and very, you know, kind of moody. … What we do is find this great combination on Destination Truth of doing a real serious investigation, but showing all the fun that we have getting to these destinations and getting ourselves in these really out-of-the-way places. And I don’t see that anywhere else. And I think that that’s what makes the show unique.”

Destination Truth is the rare reality show that actually makes characters out of the behind-the-scenes crew. From the camera operators to the audio technicians to the medic, everyone becomes part of the story. “What you’re seeing is a show where we flip that camera around every minute and show you, not just what’s in front of the camera, not just a host-driven vehicle, but a team of people who are out there having a real roughshod adventure.”

The new season of Destination Truth, which airs episodes Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on the Syfy network, has several highlights for Gates. “I think that the Vietnam episode, which is our season premiere on July 10, is a great example,” Gates said. “This is a story about a mystery primate in Vietnam. We went there. We found some incredible evidence. I brought that evidence to really the foremost, you know, expert in the world … for footprint castings, and got some pretty, you know, amazing validation of that evidence.”

Another episode this season involves a sea creature in Fiji that terrorizes a group of villagers. “I certainly left there feeling as though these folks saw something,” he said. “Was it a monster? Was it a shark? … Certainly it could have been something that we could explain away as something that’s a cataloged, you know, creature in the ocean. But certainly I left there feeling like these folks had a real experience.”

Gates admitted that he’s “on the fence” about paranormal phenomena, but the new season has some interesting cases. “I’m a real open-minded skeptic when it comes to the ghost world,” he said. “There are places though that I’ve traveled to where it’s very scary and I end up feeling like there might be something going on there.”

The main paranormal investigation on the new season involves a place in the Philippines called the Hanging Coffins, structures that are bolted to the sides of cliffs. “It’s probably the most unique and harrowing looking graveyard in the world. And so we did an investigation on belay … in this hanging graveyard. And it was a terrifying place.”

Gates and his crew have traveled to just about every country in the world, but this season they make their first trip to Kazakhstan to hunt down some UFOs (an unexplained phenomena that the TV host doesn’t exactly believe in). “I saw something that blew my mind, something I could not explain,” he said. “So that’s the great thing about working on this series is that I’m constantly going into situations and having my beliefs turned upside down.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Destination Truth airs on the Syfy network Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. Click here for more information.