I think people confuse choosing content and editing to "staging." They obviously don't open the doors, just have the people who happen to be there come in and film it, then put it on TV and nothing more. They could have people on call from A&E when someone with something interesting comes in. They could have people who call in advance to say they are coming in. (Obviously when they call in experts it can't be an instant appearance everytime) And they could just pick days and times and hope for the best. I don't consider any of that staging or fake. Rick really does have quite alot of knowledge of several things, but no doubt if someone calls in advance, he looks up the information. Plus sometimes they can put his explanations into the filming after. So I agree, just on his own he can't know as much as it seems on every item.