According to the owner of the featured pawn shop: it’s real.
According to a number of skeptical viewers: it’s fake.
Hardcore Pawn documents the events at American Jewelry and Loan between staff members and customers as well as between members of the Gold family that run the pawn shop under the guidance of patriarch Les Gold. The cast of the TruTV series say the show is real.
There are a number of suspicious details that make this claim hard to believe for some viewers. Among these is the strange coincidence that the outrageous customers that need to be escorted out of the building all appear to be wearing wireless microphones. Also cited is that there always seems to be a camera waiting outside before someone gets kicked out of the shop. The chief point of contention among skeptics is that customers’ anger simply appears contrived and the situations are just too much to be believed.
In July 2012, Hardcore Pawn returned for a sixth season with an estimated audience of 2.5 million viewers every week. New episodes air at 9pm Tuesday nights on TruTV.
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