The Worst American Pickers Episode From Season 5 According To IMDb
Since 2010, "American Pickers" has been a show near and dear to reality TV and garage sale lovers' hearts, with amazing finds and colorful characters being discovered all across the country, and then shown off for our viewing pleasure on History. But not every episode has been a hit with "Pickers" fans, especially when looking at Season 5.
Airing between November 2011 and March 2012, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz's 5th season wound up having a good amount of episodes fall below its average 7.1 rating on IMDb. For Season 5, eight of the 13 episodes that aired were 6.9 or lower. In comparison, the first two seasons of "American Pickers" combined only had one score below the series average, and Season 3 had six.
Looking back, Wolfe has said that he can totally see why things weren't hitting on all cylinders yet for Season 5 or the earlier years in general. "When we first started airing the show and making the show, I was very green at it," he told WGN Radio in March 2022. "I was pressured into in some ways trying to make it more about the money. And then...it really became more about [stories, discovery, and relationships]." So, out of all the lesser-viewed episodes of Season 5, which is actually the worst in the eyes of IMDb users?
Episode 5: Fast Eddie is the lowest at 6.4
According to IMDb scores, Episode 5 of "American Pickers" Season 5 — titled "Fast Eddie" — is the worst of the bunch. The next closest was Episode 13, dubbed "The Belly Dance."
"While Mike and Frank pick the back roads of Minnesota, they challenge Danielle to sell a ten-foot fiberglass cowboy boot that's been gathering dust for over a year," the synopsis reads (via History). "After a lifetime in the demolition business, Fast Eddie has tons of unusual oversize treasures," the description adds, noting how "a great lead gives the guys first crack at a treasure-packed farmyard estate sale." Along the way, viewers get to feast their eyes on some "awesome mantiques" as well as "a honey hole of rare bicycles."
While the episode may sound like a usual "American Pickers" outing, the attempt to sell a 10-foot-tall fiberglass boot could have been what ultimately irked viewers, seeing how they thought it was a dumb purchase, to begin with. "Watching American pickers and they just got a 300 pound fiberglass cowboy boot like what the hell," tweeted one fan in 2015. "Who is going 2 buy a 6 ft cowboy boot?" another user, @samersonk, commented.
Nowadays, with History currently airing its 23rd season, most of the weight of "American Pickers" has been put solely on Wolfe's shoulders following Fritz's controversial departure from the show in 2021. There have been repeated calls for Fritz to be brought back into the fold ever since.