Alaska: The Last Frontier Season 11 — Here's What We Can Tell Fans So Far
The Discovery Channel reality series "Alaska: The Last Frontier" is about as far away as you can get from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" without leaving the continental United States. However, one member of the cast, Jewel Kilcher, did find fame in Hollywood.
The show gives viewers a glimpse inside life on a homestead in the Alaskan wilderness. The hard-working Kilcher clan keeps their bellies full by hunting, fishing, and gardening, while facing threats like wildfires, tsunamis, and extreme weather. Season 10 also revealed how the family coped with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic through footage they shot themselves. Even though they live in a remote area, the pandemic impacted their lives nonetheless. Eve Kilcher especially struggled with homeschooling her young son Findlay. She even resorted to bribing him with ice cream to get him to do his schoolwork. Viewers usually watch Eve and her husband Eiven Kilcher teach their kids homesteading skills, so this was something new to them, as well.
The Kilchers have been reality stars for a decade, which Atz Lee Kilcher noted in a February Instagram post. "Well I guess it's been ten years since cameras showed up in my family's yard," he wrote. "A lot of shared adventures and hard work. A HUGE thanks to all the crew that kept up ( and put up) with my crazy family." Fans are naturally curious about the future of "Alaska: The Last Frontier," and we've got them covered. Here's everything we know about Season 11.
When will Season 11 of 'Alaska: The Last Frontier' be released?
As of this writing, Discovery hasn't announced whether "Alaska: The Last Frontier" has been renewed (via Tonight's TV). However, Atz Lee Kilcher mentioned the possibility of the cast and crew reuniting for another season in his February Instagram post. "With a little luck season 11 will be right around the corner," he wrote. Season 10 premiered on October 20, 2020, and the first episodes of Seasons 8 and 9 also aired in October. If the Kilchers filmed another season that follows this same pattern, then fans should expect an announcement about it sometime soon.
Fans are certainly eager for more episodes of "Alaska: The Last Frontier." They have been using the Kilchers' Instagram pages to let the family know that they miss seeing them on TV and to beg for updates. "When will your show continue? Miss watching your daily adventures," read one response to a video Eve Kilcher filmed while picking berries. "We're super excited to see your family's adventures again soon," another fan wrote in the comments section of one of Eivin Kilcher's posts, a photo of an adorable foal. While they wait for news, fans can rewatch Seasons 1-10 on Discovery Plus and Discovery Go. All episodes of Season 10 are currently available to stream for free on Discovery Go.
Which cast members will appear on 'Alaska: The Last Frontier' Season 11?
The main cast of "Alaska: The Last Frontier" are members of the Kilcher family. The homesteaders' patriarch is Atz Kilcher, a Vietnam veteran who raised his kids the same way he was raised: away from civilization. He's married to Bonnie Dupree and has four children from previous relationships. His daughter, Jewel Kilcher, is a recording artist, whose hit songs include "Hands" and "Foolish Games." She has appeared on her family's reality series with her son Kase and even had a close encounter with a bear during an episode on Season 10. "I get really homesick, really homesick for the land," Jewel said of her former home. "It helped raise me. It taught me to be tough; it taught me to be gritty; it taught me to be resilient."
Many of the other Kilchers are also musically gifted. Jewel has even toured with Atz and two of her brothers, Nikos and Atz Lee Kilcher (via The Daily Gazette). Atz Lee does a lot of hunting on the show. His wife Jane is a talented pianist and fisherwoman. Atz Sr.'s brother Otto Kilcher owns a herd of cattle and possesses a talent for using junk to create useful items. He's married to California native Charlotte Kilcher, a vegetarian who has a soft spot for the wild and domesticated animals with whom she shares her home. The colorful cast also includes Otto's son Eivin Kilcher and his wife Eve, the farmers of the family.
Why Jewel Kilcher forgave her father for being abusive
When Jewel Kilcher was 8 years old, Atz Kilcher and her mother Lenedra Carroll divorced. She told The San Diego Union-Tribune that a combination of past trauma and the breakdown of her parents' marriage sent her father on a downward spiral. "He struggled with alcoholism and he was raised in an abusive household," she said. When he became physically and psychologically abusive himself, Jewel moved out and started living on her own. She was just 15 years old. "I moved into a little cabin down the road," she told The Daily Gazette. "It was stressful and I was taking on paying rent and those things."
Jewel revealed that she never harbored any anger toward her father, however. Instead, she decided to focus on doing everything she could to ensure that she ended her family's cycle of abuse. "Forgiveness is this needle that knows how to mend, and it's the first step to really freeing yourself," she said. "So you have to forgive otherwise you become what you hate." She began practicing mindfulness, which allowed her to identify negative behaviors and change them. Her father started his own process of healing by getting sober, deciding to confront his demons, and learning "a new emotional language" (per The Union-Tribune). "Facing that shame and trying to find love for himself, when nobody had shown it to him, that was very heroic," Jewel said (per The Gazette). "We have a great relationship now, it's very authentic."