Reality TV got spookier back in 2004 with the premiere of Ghost Hunters on Syfy, following paranormal investigators who dug into places that were reportedly haunted. It was up to viewers to decide if lead investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson were really encountering spirits or not, and the premise was enough for the series to run 11 seasons from 2004 - 2016. Now, Ghost Hunters is on the way back, and one original star is on board despite a number of other changes.
Original team co-leader Grant Wilson will return at the head of an otherwise new team of investigators for the twelfth season, but he won't be on his old TV stomping grounds. The Ghost Hunters revival will air on A&E rather than Syfy, and the premiere really isn't all that far off. The first episode of A&E's Ghost Hunters airs August 21, as the first of 20 episodes that have been greenlit so far.
The new paranormal investigative team will be comprised of contractor and firearms instructor Daryl Marston (who will co-lead with Grant Wilson), hypnotherapist and parapsychology expert Kristen Luman (another co-leader), paranormal technician Brandon Alvis, paranormal historian and site analyst Mustafa Gatollari, former Marine and current construction worker Brian Murray, and seasoned ghost hunter Richel Stratton. These investigators were handpicked by Wilson, so don't expect the ghost sex lady to turn up. Even if she is engaged to a ghost now!
From the very beginning, Ghost Hunters utilized technology to explain the seemingly unexplainable, but the A&E version will use "the most innovative technology available." The innovative technology of 2019 will be likely vastly superior to the tech from the earlier seasons of the show, and probably even the latest season, which ended in 2016. It should be interesting to see what changes and what stays the same other than Grant Wilson as lead.
Will the new Ghost Hunters have what it takes to hook a paranormal-loving crowd to tuning into A&E on the regular? A&E is betting big on the genre moving forward, as the Ghost Hunters revival is not the only paranormal-themed show to get an order from the network.
Four supernatural-focused shows -- no, not that kind of supernatural -- in addition to Ghost Hunters landed orders from A&E. Psychic Kids and Celebrity Ghost Stories reimaginings are in the works, along with a couple of brand new projects. The two new projects have only working titles.
Trey the Texas Medium, as it is currently known, will center on a custom casket designer and medium who works to help families in need of closure. It received an order for 12 episodes to premiere in the fall right off the bat. World's Biggest Ghost Hunt, also a working title, will be the longest continuously filmed paranormal investigation in TV history with five paranormal investigators locked up in the Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania for two weeks. A two-hour special, it too will premiere in the fall.
Of the paranormal projects in the works for the fall on A&E, Ghost Hunters is the one with the most name recognition and arguably greatest potential to draw an audience. In a matter of months, viewers can find out if A&E has what it takes to become a new paranormal destination on TV or if Ghost Hunters was best left finished.
The Ghost Hunters revival premieres Wednesday, August 21 at 9 p.m. ET on A&E. That's still a ways off, but at least there are plenty of other TV options available now and in the not-too-distant future.
