Things Aren’t Looking Good For The “American Pickers” Crew

People constantly ask me to try to get into the mind of a collector, and I’m a collector myself.
>> Mike Wolf paid over $6 million to end his marriage. That same year, his best friend got fired from their show. But that’s not why fans are angry. In September 2024, something happened [music] that changed everything. A hospital visit, a stroke, and one final goodbye that came years too late. Now the ratings have dropped 92%. Angry petitions are spreading online and people are demanding the show be cancelled. The truth about what really destroyed American Pickers isn’t what you think. It’s darker, messier, and it all started with one man’s back surgery during lockdown. Frank Fritz didn’t just vanish from American Pickers. He fell hard and fast during a time when the rest of the world was already falling apart. In March 2020, while the world was locking down, [music] Frank was at home shifting heavy antiques like he always did. But this time, something snapped. He injured his back so severely that doctors had to open him up, stitch him 185 times, and insert two metal rods into his spine. This wasn’t some small fix. It was a full spinal reconstruction, and it came at a time when his long-term relationship had just ended. The emotional pain collided with the physical pain. Mike Wolf called it the perfect storm. The painkillers prescribed for surgery became the doorway. And just like that, Frank wasn’t the same. Mike said it was like watching his best friend turn into a stranger. The world had gone silent with CO. And so had the people around Frank.
While isolated, trying to deal with heartbreak and searing pain, he began taking more pills. Not to get high, but to make the agony go away. By the time people realized how deep he was into it, the addiction had already sunk its claws into him. And this wasn’t just about back pain. Frank had already been living with Crohn’s disease since his 20s. He’d been sick longer than most fans even knew he existed. Crohn’s wasn’t just a footnote. It was the shadow always following him. It weakened his bones through years of harsh medications which made the 2020 injury more likely in the first place. Over the years, he went under the knife, not once or twice, but 17 times. In 2013, things got so bad that he had to use a colostomy bag. But Frank hid it. He didn’t want the audience or producers to see him as anything less [music] than rugged. So, he kept smiling on screen while battling constant pain, weight loss, and fatigue off camera. Behind the scenes, he was quietly self-medicating to keep the act going. It was a setup [music] for disaster when opioids entered the picture after surgery. He was already used to managing pain and silence.
[music] The pills didn’t just relieve.
It felt like they were rescuing him until they weren’t. The addiction [music] wasn’t born out of thrill. It was born from survival. The professional cracks between Frank and Mike had started appearing even before the surgery. Back in 2019, Frank noticed Mike doing more press alone. He was slowly being pushed to the background.
By 2021, Frank couldn’t stay quiet anymore. In a raw interview with the son, he admitted that Mike hadn’t even picked up the phone to ask about his recovery. They hadn’t spoken in 2 years.
Frank had been through one of the worst periods of his life. And the one person he thought would check in just didn’t.
He felt erased. [music] Mike didn’t just ignore him, he replaced him. By the time Frank realized he was off the show, Mike was already taping new episodes without telling him. Frank had helped build American Pickers since 2010, and [clears throat] suddenly it was like he’d never existed. That pain cut deeper than surgery. Then came the radio interview. Frank was done staying quiet.
He called Mike’s public statement about his departure complete bulls. To Frank, those words were just a cleanup job. He said Mike never [music] said five nice things to him in a decade. It was brutal. Frank compared it to Steven Tyler ditching his bandmates, saying Mike wanted all the credit while treating him like a backup act. Off camera, Mike controlled everything. What town to film in, what dealer to feature, it was all Mike. Frank wasn’t exaggerating. He said the [music] show tilted toward Mike a thousand%. And he was tired of pretending it was a partnership. Then came the final insult.
After all that time, Mike finally posted about Frank online. But Frank told friends it wasn’t real. That post only came because fans were demanding answers. [music] He believed it wasn’t about concern. It was about ratings. And then just to twist the knife, Mike brought in his own brother, Robbie, to replace him. To Frank, it wasn’t just a casting choice. It was Mike making sure that no one would ever challenge his control again. Frank [music] told people that Mike’s social media post was a rewrite of history, one where Mike looked like the caring friend instead of the guy who disappeared. In 2023, Frank had a stroke, a bad one. He could barely talk afterward. That’s when Mike finally [music] showed up. He visited Frank in the care facility where he now lived under guardianship. Friends say the meeting didn’t change anything. Frank, though limited in speech, got the message across to those closest to him.
Mike’s visit was too little, too late.
Frank had lived through surgeries, addiction, job loss, and public silence.
Now in a bed, unable to speak properly, he had nothing left to [music] say to the man who used to be his best friend.
Mike sat by his side, held his hand, and maybe meant well. But the truth is, one afternoon doesn’t erase years of absence. The photos from that visit were posted online, but to those who really knew Frank, they rang hollow. He’d spent months recovering in silence, far from Hollywood, far from cameras, far from the man he once called a brother. In September 2024, Frank Fritz died. He was [music] 60. And suddenly, Mike posted a heartfelt tribute, acknowledging their complicated history. But fans saw through it. The man who’d gone quiet during the addiction, the surgeries, the stroke. He was now mourning in public.
Some called it sincere, others called it hypocrisy. The truth was buried with Frank. [music] The last few years of his life had been filled with pain, recovery, and estrangement. The feud ended not with resolution, but with silence. It all came [music] crashing down on December 6th, 2021. Mike Wolf, the face of American Pickers, finalized his divorce after 13 long months of legal unraveling. Jod Faith, the woman he had married back in 2012 in Franklin, Tennessee, walked away with more than just memories. The court documents made it painfully clear. Mike was ordered to pay her $634,000 in alimony and another $5,278.73 [music] for the marital estate split. That’s over $6 million gone just like that. And while the paperwork was filed in November 2020, Jod [music] listed their separation date as June of the previous year, 17 months earlier. All that time, Mike had been on the road filming, unaware perhaps that his absence was building the case [music] against him.
They had a daughter together, Charlie Faith, only 9 years old at the time. But parenting wasn’t the center of the storm. The real blow came when the assets were divided. Of the 15 properties they’d shared or held interest in, Jod got the one that mattered most, the $2 million Nashville home. She also took the North Carolina property. Mike kept the other 13 scattered [music] across Tennessee and Iowa. But the house wasn’t the worst part. The royalties were Jod was granted 50% of all post tax royalties from the first 10 seasons of American Pickers for anything Mike earned before the end of 2021. After that, from January 2022 through the end of 2026, she would still receive 40%. The show broadcast globally and raking in cash long after the episodes aired had become her income stream too. She was entitled to it whether he liked it or not. And she didn’t stop there. Mike had to hand over JCM Investments as well, though he held on to MRW Inky and Mossy Point Productions. The weight of it showed up in smaller but equally painful lines buried in the settlement. In December 2021 alone, Mike had to pay Jodie $28,000.
One month, one check. That was just her 50% of the royalties earned from season 10. This wasn’t a one-off. This was going to happen every month until 2026, and all of it hit at the worst possible time. His longtime co-host, Frank Fritz, had disappeared from the series in March 2020 and was fired in July 2021. The show’s chemistry took a direct hit.
Meanwhile, Mike’s retail business, Antique Archaeology, was stumbling.
Complaints poured in about high prices and low stock. Even with estimated sales of $93,000 in 2023, it wasn’t nearly enough to swallow a $6 million settlement, plus monthly payments. But Mike didn’t wait for the ink to dry before moving on. By early 2021, months before the divorce was finalized, he was already publicly seen with Leticia Klene. She was 44, [music] a former Playboy and Maxim model, a Harley-Davidson racer and a former pro- wrestling interviewer with a [music] psychology degree. Born in 1978, Leticia was 14 years younger than Mike.
Fans were quick to accuse him of trading up for someone younger, especially since Jod had just filed for divorce and the [music] case was still unresolved.
Leticia had a son, Caleb, who turned 18 in 2020. The relationship wasn’t a fling. It went public in April 2021, but insiders said it had started long before that. The public wasn’t impressed. In January 2022, right after the divorce became official, Mike removed Jod as the registered agent for Antique Archaeology. That might have been a business move, but it also symbolized a final cut. And yet, the company’s problems only got worse. Reviews for the Nashville location mocked the store for turning into a glorified gift shop. One angry customer filed a BBB complaint in July 2022, saying they’d been charged for an item and refunded later with the excuse that it had been sold to someone else. The strain was evident. By April 2025, Mike shut down the Nashville shop entirely, ending a 15-year run. It wasn’t just a store closing. It was the slow death of a legacy. The show wasn’t fairing any better. On July [music] 2, 2025, season 27 premiered with a record-breaking low. only 390,000 viewers tuned in. Compare that to season 26, which averaged 723,000 viewers per episode. The drop was massive, and the second episode of season 27 barely recovered, crawling up to 536,000, but the damage was already done. The loss of Frank Fritz was too much for the audience. After his firing in 2021 and tragic death in September 2024, fans began tuning out in protest. Danielle Colby, another core cast member, said it plainly, “We miss Frank. We miss his laughter. We miss his sense of humor.” Those weren’t just words. [music] They were a death sentence for the show’s chemistry. The October 30th, 2024 episode titled DIY Delorean was the lowest point for season 26, drawing just 442,000 viewers. That figure was unrecognizable compared to The Glory Days. Back in 2012, episodes had peaked at 4.8 million viewers. The slide wasn’t just slow, it was brutal. Even season 25 in early 2024 had done better with a high of 966,000 viewers in February. The premiere of season 26, which aired just days after Frank’s death and featured rare Evil Conval memorabilia, should have been a major draw. It only got 565,000 [music] viewers, not even the crown jewel of Americana collectibles could save them. And yet, despite the crumbling numbers, the History Channel renewed American Pickers in April 2025.
Mike announced it on Instagram. Filming for season 27 began in February that year, but the fans had had enough. By 2025, angry viewers were flooding social media and launching petition campaigns to cancel the show altogether. [music] Many saw it as Mike’s selfish project now longer the show they love. Cancel this show. It’s a husk of what it was.
one viewer wrote. Another said, “This show ruined the buying selling [music] market.” The fury only intensified after Frank died as fans believed the show had disrespected his legacy. Once the top reality series on the History Channel, American Pickers had fallen to sixth place by 2025. The numbers told the rest. The show had launched in January 2010 with 3.1 million viewers, still the History Channel’s [music] most successful debut. Season 1 averaged 3.8 million viewers. By the early 2010s, it was pulling in nearly 5 million per episode, but by 2025, it had collapsed to under [music] 500,000 viewers. Season 27’s premiere drew only 390,000. That’s a 92% viewership drop. Even the October 30th, 2024 [music] episode, with its dismal 442,000 viewers, made that clear.
Without Frank, without the original spark, the show had become a ghost of what it once was. The numbers didn’t lie. The fans didn’t forget. When Robbie Wolf first appeared on American Pickers in 2021, he wasn’t just another face on the screen. He was stepping into the spot left behind by Frank Fritz, [music] a man who had built more than a decade of connection with viewers. Robbie, Mike Wolf’s younger brother, was already in his early 60s at the time, born around 1961, and fans didn’t hesitate to react almost instantly. Platforms like Reddit lit up with criticism. In a post from August 2021 titled, “The Dirty Wolf’s true colors finally shine through.” One user said, “Robbie acted like he knew antiques when it was clear he didn’t.” Others called him cheap and said he lowballed sellers who were obviously going through hard times. The sentiment grew quickly. [music] People missed Frank and Robbie wasn’t filling those shoes. Things didn’t settle down after that. In fact, the reaction to Robbie only got worse. Through 2023 and into 2024, viewers kept demanding he be removed. In April 2024, a Yahoo article highlighted how the show’s own Facebook page was flooded with angry comments, calling Robbie boring and unwatchable.
One person said they changed the channel as soon as Robbie showed up. Others pointed out how he lacked Frank’s charm and described his bargaining tactics as aggressive, especially when people were parting with old family items out of financial need. [music] On Reddit, one person mentioned how Robbie bragged over tiny discounts like they were massive [music] wins. Fans didn’t see passion in him. They saw someone trying too hard without the heart that Frank brought to the show. The tension didn’t stop with just fan comments. It showed up on screen. Where there was once banter and rhythm between Mike and Frank, now there was silence and stiffness. Robbie tried to bring in his own flare. He once said, “I’m going to school you a little bit here.” about a vintage sign. But instead [music] of sounding helpful, it came across as arrogant. Viewers said the fun was gone. One person posted that there was no tension, no fun. Robbie kills the vibe. YouTube and Twitter were full of those small comments that echoed one big thing. The chemistry was off and people noticed. And [music] then came the numbers. Ratings for American Pickers plummeted. Season 26 started on October 9th, 2024 with just 565,000 viewers. The second episode dropped even lower to 463,000. By the end of the month, the episode DIY Delorean hit a low point of 442,000. Compare that to season 25’s peak of 966,000 viewers in February 2024, and the decline is staggering. Robbiey’s arrival aligned too closely with this fall to ignore.
Fans didn’t just stop watching [music] quietly, they talked about it online.
Some said the show should be cancelled altogether. Once the crown jewel of the History Channel, American Pickers had dropped to fifth place among [music] the network’s lineup. Still, there was one brief moment where things picked up. On January 15th, 2025, the season 26 finale aired. Mike visited an old Illinois homestead and bought a slot machine from the 1800s for $15,000. After restoration, it was worth $20,000. The episode drew $760,000 viewers, almost matching the season opener. But [music] fans didn’t credit Robbie. They focused on Mike, who had handled the entire deal. Robbie had made a few motorcycle purchases throughout the season, but none were significant enough to make headlines. Even when there was a win, it wasn’t his. Meanwhile, Danielle Colby was dealing with a completely different set of challenges. Back in October 2022, she had to get an emergency hysterctomy because of uterine fibroids that caused constant pain and bleeding. She talked [music] about it openly on Patreon, explaining how it had become impossible to work normally. She started iron treatments twice a week, and the surgery kept her away from filming for 4 months.
Fans noticed she was gone during season 23 and rumors about her death even started circulating which weren’t true at all. She came back later that season and used burlesque dancing to help recover. [music] Then came another health scare in October 2024. Danielle had a tumor removed from her face after being diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a condition that sent waves of pain through the right side of her body. The tumor pressed on a major facial nerve, and before surgery, she said the pain was unbearable. Just two days after the operation, the pain had dropped to about 10% of what she’d felt.
But she made it clear that this wouldn’t be a one-time thing. Doctors told her it would likely come back again and again.
She even shared pictures of her swollen face and throat online. After 15 years on the show, she was grateful that her insurance covered the treatment. Then in August 2024, social media falsely claimed Danielle had died at the age of 48. Hosts saying huge tragedy spread fast with pictures and fake messages of mourning. Danielle shut it down immediately. On X, she quoted Mark Twain saying, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Then she added her own note asking people to use a better picture when she actually does die. But it didn’t stop. Just eight days later, another post said she had died again.
Her reply, “I’m pretty sure I’m not fing dead.” These fake reports lined up with her recent health [music] absences, which made people believe them more easily. By the time season 27 premiered in July 2025, the damage was clear. The season started with just 390,000 [music] viewers, the lowest in the show’s history. That’s less than half of what season 25 was getting at its peak.
[music] Danielle was hardly on screen.
Her visits to antique archaeology had been central to the show since 2010. But now her appearances were rare. Health breaks and surgeries had taken their toll, and fans were noticing. One comment read, “Cancel this show. It’s a husk of what it was.” Another simply said, “It’s not nearly as good anymore.” Viewers didn’t see the original team dynamic anymore. They [music] saw fragments. And perhaps the most emotional moment came from Danielle herself. In a July 2025 interview with Newsweek just before the [music] first anniversary of Frank Fritz’s death, she opened up Frank had died on September 30th, 2024 at age 60. The cause was a stroke tied to cerebral vascular disease with aortic stenosis and COPD also playing a role. Danielle said [music] what everyone had been thinking. Boy, we miss Frank. We miss his laughter. We miss his sense of humor. She talked about how Frank held [music] things together, not with force, but with wit.
Huge loss, she said. Huge, huge loss for us. His absence was more than just a missing face. It was a missing heartbeat. Without him, even the [music] best efforts felt off. The chemistry, the flow, the joy, it all seemed harder to find. On a quiet Friday afternoon, September 12th, 2025, Mike Wolf and Leticia Klein were cruising down a Tennessee highway in Mike’s cherished vintage Porsche 356. The roads were calm. The light just beginning to turn golden. And then out of nowhere, an SUV burst from a side street. There was no warning, no time to break. Mike swerved, instinctively throwing the wheel, but the SUV was already there. The Porsche crumpled on impact, its passenger side taking the full force. The windshield shattered instantly, the hood folded like paper, and the air filled with the sound of twisting metal. Despite their seat belts, the vintage lap only restraints offered little protection.
The wreck was so severe that emergency crews rushed to the scene within minutes. Mike was barely conscious, slipping [music] in and out, while Leticia was in far worse shape.
Paramedics called for an airlift. She was flown directly to Vanderbilt Hospital. Leticia’s injuries were horrifying. Her jaw had fractured in three places, dislocating as it slammed against the window. ribs were broken, her sternum cracked, and one lung collapsed completely. She couldn’t breathe without intense pain. Doctors were alarmed at the swelling along her spine. 4 days later, on September 16th, she was discharged, but only briefly.
Her condition required immediate reconstructive surgery. On September 22nd, she underwent a grueling procedure to rebuild her jaw, one so complex that her surgeons described it as among the most difficult they’d ever seen. Her mouth was wired shut afterward, and her road to recovery promised to be long, painful, and slow. Eating became impossible. Every word had to be written or mouthed silently. Yet, she was lucky.
Despite the violence of the crash, her brain was untouched. Mike’s condition was different, but no less frightening.
He was rushed to the same hospital by ambulance. Face [music] bloodied, bruised, and barely responsive. His nose was broken, stitches were needed, and deep contusions lined his body. But the most chilling part was this. The crash impact had been so violent that his body cracked the steering wheel in half.
Leticia later posted that had the column pierced him, it could have killed him on the spot. Mike returned home the next day on September 13th, but pain lingered. His wrist and knee had taken a brutal hit. He needed specialist visits, constant [music] checkups, and rest. In the following days, he shared haunting images of the total blue Porsche. Its crushed frame and mangled glass said what words couldn’t. The two had narrowly escaped death. Leticia’s recovery dragged on.
Even 11 days after the crash on September 24th, she was still hospitalized, unable to speak, eat, or walk normally. Mike never left her side.
Doctors told her it could take months before she regained full function. The accident didn’t just break bones, it halted careers. Mike immediately paused all work on American Pickers. Season 27 had just wrapped [music] on August 20th, and plans for season 28 were frozen indefinitely. After 15 uninterrupted years, the show faced its first real break. Industry insiders guessed that filming wouldn’t resume for at least a month. Mike’s team put out a statement asking fans to keep Leticia in your hearts. Work no longer mattered. Healing became everything. But in the background, fans began whispering.
Official reports said the SUV cut them off. But was that the full story? Mike had faced an emotionally crushing 2024.
His divorce from Jod Faith was finalized in 2021, but the pain had lingered. The couple had split quietly back in June 2020. And by the time the papers were signed in December 2021, Mike had already paid dearly over $6 million in the divorce, including $634,000 in alimony, their $2 million Nashville home, and ongoing royalty shares. And then, of course, [music] there was Frank Fritz. Mike had lost his longtime co-host, a blow that haunted both the show and its fans. Social media swirled with theories. Some speculated that Mike’s mental fatigue and burnout may have dulled his response on the road. An anonymous source even claimed he was driving too fast, trying to outrun the chaos of the show. It was never proven.
Mike only called the crash one thing, a second chance at life. [music] Months before the accident, another shock hit fans. On April 27th, 2025, Mike closed the Nashville branch of his antique archaeology store after 14 years.
[music] The public reason sounded noble.
He wanted to spend more time with his mother and his daughter Charlie in Iowa.
But behind closed doors, things were less tidy. In 2023, the store had brought in nearly $93,000 in sales. Still, it wasn’t enough. The divorce had taken its toll. Employees were only informed the day before. On April [music] 26th, Mike made a final appearance, signing autographs quietly before locking the doors forever.
Troubles had been building long before the wreck. In 2022, [music] a scathing Better Business Bureau complaint accused Antique Archaeology of selling the same item to multiple buyers. A customer had bought a vintage lamp, got a confirmation, and then days later, a refund. It had been sold to someone else for a higher price. Fans called it unethical. Some said [music] Mike’s brand was slipping. He wasn’t the honest picker anymore. He was just another businessman [music] chasing margins. And then came November 26th, 2024. The Nashville shop suddenly closed, citing a gas leak caused by construction. It reopened just two days later, [music] conveniently right before Black Friday. The explanation felt hollow. Around the same time, the show was crashing in ratings. On October 30th, only 442,000 tuned in to watch DIY Delorean. By November, the numbers barely climbed past 500,000. People started connecting dots. Maybe it wasn’t about a [music] gas leak. Maybe it was financial. Maybe it had something to do with asset evaluations tied to his divorce. Jodie Feith still had rights to 40% of royalties through 2026. The problems didn’t end there. In July 2025, sharpeyed fans caught a bizarre continuity error. On an episode, Robbie Wolf and Jersey John were shown driving together in a white antique archaeology van. But when they arrived, they exited two different vehicles. Robbie stepped out of a Mercedes. John climbed from a Chevy Express. It didn’t make sense.
Social media exploded with accusations of staged filming. Over 20,000 posts accused the show of being fake. In May 2025, Mike tried to explain. He admitted the show had changed. “We know where we’re going,” he said in a Tik Tok comment. “Scripted, no, but pre-scouted, [music] yes. The charm of freestyling, spontaneously finding treasures, was gone. Fame had made it impossible. They now had researchers. They planned pickups. They crafted scenes. Fans didn’t buy it. The magic was fading. The show that once felt like a cross-country adventure now felt like a rehearsed