What's a reality TV show without loads of outrageous drama and suspense? It doesn't take a genius to know that reality shows barely have anything to do with reality. Most, if not everything you see on a reality show is scripted. Yet car fans in their millions are glued to their TV screens watching car reality shows like Graveyard Carz, Fast n’ Loud, and of course Counting Cars, which airs on History Channel.
Counting Cars, which is now a huge sensation, began as a spinoff of Pawn Stars. The reality TV show which has gathered high ratings and viewership over the years is about a restoration and customization garage based in Las Vegas called Count’s Kustoms. Danny Koker, the garage owner and star of the TV show with a distinct personality gathered a crew to work on cars and bikes to the amazement of viewers. But beyond the action you catch on your screen, a lot of things fly under the radar that are just as intriguing—if not more!
Here are 10 things you didn't know were fake about Counting Cars.
10 Danny Buying Cars On The Spot
On Counting Cars, it appears like Danny approaches the owner of any car that catches his eye and negotiates a sales deal on the spot. Actually, all that on-air purchase is just to thrill viewers by following a script.
In reality, the terms of a sales deal for any car that would appear on the show would have already been clearly laid out and finalized. Leaving the car sales to chance would probably lead to a lot of unexpected issues that take more than an episode to resolve.
9 Constant Shortage Of Funds
With the constant talk of making money to keep on running, you might be fooled into believing that the show is low on cash. But that's actually not the case. When it comes to TV show success, Counting Cars is not lacking.
Danny Koker amassed a significant portion of his wealth from the reality show. Well, this shouldn't even come as a surprise because a show with millions of viewers would always translate into millions of dollars.
8 The Drama And Dialogue
Again, what's a reality show without some form of wild antics, quarrels, and the likes? Regardless of whose side you are on, it's good you know none of it is real.
You don't want to be the most boring person on TV, so you've got to stage a drama to keep your audience glued to their TV screen. Even the dialogues about rebuilds and customization are all based on a script or a prior discussion.
7 Multiple Builds At Once
During every episode of Counting Cars, you would notice that at least three builds are in the works at the garage. This poses a huge challenge for cameramen and the production crew, as even a thorough tune-up job can take several hours to complete.
Fitting the entire rebuilding process into an episode would take a great deal of work to pull off, in terms of splicing, editing, and reworking. So, filming of the show isn’t in real-time, and builds are worked on one at a time.
6 “Surprise” Enhancements
It's not unusual to find Koker and his team touching up cars with unique features, as mere restoration is not enough if you want a car to sparkle. During the show, a car owner would request a restoration job, but Koker will take things a step further by adding new features such as fancier wheels, at no cost.
It's obvious that many car owners would not be comfortable with restorers making changes without their green light. Well, what actually happens on Counting Cars is that every additional part on a car is already signed off by the owner before filming. So, most of the surprise reactions to those restorations are just for the cameras.
5 Celebrity Stop-By's
If you are a big fan of Counting Cars, you would have probably seen your favorite celebrities like the actress, Cassandra Peterson, and the country rocker, Andy Ross "stop by" the garage to rebuild their car or just to get a glimpse of what's going on at the shop.
Counting Cars makes it seem like these celebrities just randomly dropped by Count’s Kustoms, when in fact, the show has promotional deals with many of these stars.
4 Danny's "Facts" About Cars
Many fans of Counting Cars would consider Danny Koker as an expert on all things automobile. The show relies on his knowledge of the subject, but as they say, no one is an island of knowledge. Although it's not exactly clear whether some of his claims are just to push a particular narrative or they are simply dead wrong, one thing is for sure, not every information on the show is correct.
A number of car enthusiasts have pointed out some inaccuracies in the TV show. One of such is when Danny claimed that the Chevy started producing the Corvette in 1954, and was a colossal failure, with just 600 units produced. After a bit of digging, fans realized Danny's claims were false.
3 "Stellar" Customer Ratings
There's no doubt that the crew at Count's Kustoms does a great job. To make it more convincing, customers are usually ecstatic with the final results from a modification or restoration job. Who wouldn't want to take their car for such a top-notch job?
Well, there are some not-so-stellar reviews of Count's Kustoms on TripAdvisor that you can't just ignore, even if you want to. For instance, a reviewer by the username ND_Traveler referred to his tour of the garage as a "total waste of time", while another complained about inadequate viewing space and overpriced merchandise.
2 Scott Jones' Embezzlement
Scott Jones was a crew member of Counting Cars, who was loved for his eccentric and bossy presence on the show. Following his disappearance after the second season of the reality show, fans started speculating on the supposed reason for his absence. Among other things, there were rumors of fund embezzlements.
The reason this particular rumor stuck around for a while was that something similar has happened with the crew. An employee with the name Frontiera allegedly embezzled over $75,000 from Count's Kustoms. However, with regard to Scott, this was just a baseless claim. Scott has actually returned to Tennessee, following the birth of his son.
1 Every Piece Of Equipment Readily Available
A trick to spot a scripted car TV show is how readily available parts are. If you have been around a mechanic for some time, you'd know some parts are very difficult to come by. In fact, the rarer the car, the more difficult it is to get parts.
If you watch any episode of Counting Cars, you would notice how every part they need is right there. Even when they order a rare part like the right rim of a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette, it's as though they got it right off the shelf.