Ghosts may be perfectly suited for the spooky season and Halloween episodes, but why can’t a sitcom about the dead who happened to stick around also celebrate the holiday season? The hit CBS sitcom is going full Christmas with an upcoming special TV event, and it won’t just show the ghosts of Woodstone in a more festive atmosphere than usual. The one-hour episode will also embrace star Rose McIver’s history of starring in heartwarming holiday movies.
While McIver’s previous TV gig was iZombie (which was hardly the most merry show on the small screen), the actress also starred in some popular Christmas movies for Netflix, including one that was such a hit with Netflix subscribers that the streamer actually called some people out. Ghosts isn’t going full A Christmas Prince for its holiday episode, but co-showrunner Joe Wiseman spoke about what’s ahead that nods to her past projects.
Speaking with CinemaBlend about the Halloween episode, Wiseman previewed what’s to come with the Christmas celebration:
That is going to be an hour-long, two-part episode, so we felt like we needed to do something sort of special and fun. Without revealing too much, part of the premise is Jay's sister who we met last season is visiting Woodstone, and Sam – who is obsessed with the sort of Hallmark-type Christmas rom-coms – sees an opportunity to sort of help Bela find true love with a friend that she's brought along for the weekend. But the ghosts have their own idea, and it's a very different idea.
Unlike Rose McIver in A Christmas Prince (and its two sequels), her character won’t be on the road to romance in the Ghosts special. Sam has her eye on helping her sister-in-law find love, but this may be a case of Sam and the ghosts approaching the same problem in extremely different ways.
It’s particularly interesting in light of the fact that Bela is one of the very few people who know about Sam’s ability to see and interact with ghosts, and it seems safe to say that some particularly festive shenanigans are on the way in the special two-parter.
Plus, it’s no coincidence that Sam is all about Christmas in this Ghosts celebration. When I noted to Joe Wiseman that Sam loving rom-com Christmas movies is very fitting for Rose McIver, he responded:
Exactly! Yes, we thought it was a fun wink to the movies that she did.
While the episodes – fittingly called “The Christmas Spirit: Part One” and “The Christmas Spirit: Part Two” – may not go down exactly like a Hallmark holiday movie would, or even like any of CBS’ other holiday movies (like the one starring The Talk’s Amanda Kloots alongside a Hallmark legend), fans of Ghosts as well as Rose McIver’s Christmas movies are in for a treat. Whether or not Sam is successful in finding love for Bela remains to be seen, but it seems to safe to count on a lot of laughs.
Luckily, the Christmas event isn’t too far off. The two-parter kicks off on CBS on Thursday, December 15 at 8 p.m. ET and continues for a full hour. The holiday celebration will also be the end of Ghosts for in the 2022 TV schedule, and fans will have a few weeks to wait before Season 2 returns in the 2023 TV premiere lineup. You can always revisit the episodes so far streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, though! Just don’t count on Jay seeing the spirits himself anytime soon.
