Why is this show STILL on the air???

Hi all. I was sitting here in my office watching Syfy, when yet another advertisement for Ghost Hunters came up. This show was an instant favorite when it first aired years ago - they were a real, legitimate team that did what had become a passion of my own - paranormal investigation. I started investigating the paranormal freelance in 1996, in my small town just south of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

In the beginnings of this landmark show, they had what all paranormal investigators had - a low success rate on finding conclusive proof of paranormal phenomena. I have been a part of over 6,000 investigations over the span of coming up upon 16 years. The hit rate for finding this proof for me as well as many other teams was about 25% roughly. That's only 1500 cases out over 6,000 investigations. Out of those cases our hit rate (that we have learned) is 1237 cases to be exact. This is how this show started as we had - most cases not finding much of anything at all. Let me be frank - much more often than not, we as well as many other groups found NOTHING.

As the years have gone on, they, (TAPS) seemed to be getting more and more evidence, as in almost every episode. This is simply not the way paranormal research and investigation is. It struck a bad chord in me. The show was now becoming much more commercialized, as they were bringing in celebrities as a way of garnering ratings. This was now making me sick the more I watched this. In the beginning, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson stated that "they do not put stock in what mediums and psychics had to say", declaring that they only went upon scientifically found results using said scientific equipment. 5 years ago they had the well known medium Chris Fleming as a guest, as he was the main focus of the program. It seemed that their distaste for these people that they said were "mostly charlatans" had now subsided.This started opening my eyes that these guys were changing their core values and this show was proving that they were caving in to the monetary side of a successful television show as theirs.

They even went on to state that they still worked at Roto-Rooter, as they had said in the beginning and that this show was not a way for them to earn a living. Just as they completely upgraded their equipment to the tune of many tens of thousands of dollars and replaced their vehicles with all new ones; and expensive ones to say the least. Anyone that really believes that they do not profit greatly from this show need to open their eyes... seriously.

In 2006, my ex-wife was a work-from-home housewife who made a living making custom dolls that she sold online. Of all people that bought one to my surprise was Brian "Wheezy" Harnois - who I will say, is a real genuine down to earth guy, who in no way was addled by becoming somewhat of a celebrity. Those who watched the show from the beginning know who I am talking about. We started talking, as I told him that I did the same thing as he did, just not on a syndicated television show. We became friends and talked back and forth in emails as well as on the phone. The things he had to say (or I should state didn't say) were disconcerting at the least; he was clearly not happy with his cohorts on this show.

Now the real meat of my problem with this show. They have been found subsequently throughout the years of faking evidence. Some of their own unedited material showing how they had faked evidence in the season finale on Syfy (then scifi) had been leaked by someone on the production crew. Good on them for doing so. Much more has come to light as the years have gone on as well. It's sickening to me. What I saw as a real team (who they used to be) that was to possibly propel the field of paranormal research and give it some legitimacy was showing to be money hoarding frauds. The paranormal field has always been plagued by naysayers (skepticism is good and I have always welcomed it) that do what they can to discredit those who earnestly and honestly work to show that there is truly more beyond death than what we see with our eyes.Now a group that had the opportunity to be the paragons of showing some true legitimacy of paranormal phenomena were now the ones destroying it for personal profit.

Grant Wilson, who of the two founders always seemed to be the level headed and likable, was now leaving the show for "undisclosed" reasons as of last year. It is my personal opinion that he had an attack of conscience and was not liking anymore what the group had become as compared to who they were. In this field your word and integrity mean everything; lose those things and you are left and exposed as a fraud. These guys have put a black eye upon this field of research that will take a long time to overcome for the rest of us out there who have not lost theirs.



This video shows one of their greatest forgeries and scams. So, let me ask you. Do you watch this show and enjoy it? If so, why? These guys are taking everyone for a ride with their fraudulent evidence and are charlatans only trying to make money, playing off of peoples lack of knowledge of the paranormal field. This show has been on long enough and needs to be shutdown. Who wants to watch a show that shows the group therein to be liars and hoaxers?

scifake.com...

A website that tackles hoaxes and has a section only on the paranormal.TAPS has been showed to be frauds many times by their team of independent researchers, even calling this group on their fraudulent evidence, to where the founders would not answer their questions in the past after being exposed. Its a site that is worth a look in showing these "investigators" for who they really are - FRAUDS.

I agree with everything you said here about that show, in the beginning it was really good,and believable and I remember one had to leave because he was away so, long it was interfering with his wife/girlfriend and Grant gave him an ultimatum, her or the show, just like that. He picked his wife/girlfriend of course. Some have left also and told how it was faked and they were bullied most of the time.
Last programme I saw they had really expensive cars and vans and even more expensive gadgets to work with, yet he is supposed to still be a plumber!
Every show there is rocks being thrown as well, reminds me of the one we had here in the UK called Most Haunted, it was proven to be a total fake but took years before it was exposed.
One I do like is Ghost Adventures with the 3 guys especially when they went to a place the name I can't remember, where country music was played all the time and they were terrified.

Maybe it is due to the fact that the place they go to are almost proven to be haunted with multiple reports. also all shows fake stuff to get in viewers and i wouldn't expect any different from them.

Originally posted by Newagekid2012
Maybe it is due to the fact that the place they go to are almost proven to be haunted with multiple reports. also all shows fake stuff to get in viewers and i wouldn't expect any different from them.

nowadays all shows are fake. people like it. the real world is boring

reply to post by scotsdavy1


I remember Most Haunted, as I also watched the show - up until their "medium" Derek Acorah, was completely shown to be a fraud and was being given info on the locations of the show before taping. Another disgusting example.

reply to post by Rubicant13


Agreed, the show was a neat idea at first until I noticed nothing being caught.
Then it seemed their ratings were tanking and all of a sudden they are finding paranormal activities around every corner.
I stopped watching and never gave a second thought to anyone debunking them as I was sure it was all crap.
Now my wife loves this crap and believes in ghosts, she generally thinks my conspiracy facts are junk.
Lol, who sees truth?

Most Haunted was only ever entertainment surely,it was good in terms of the great locations and stories but the actual paranormal side of it was pretty far fetched.All the screaming used to do my head right in too

As for Ghost Hunters I agree it was a great show at the start.I liked how they didnt use mediums and seemed to look to debunk first before going down the paranormal route.

reply to post by Rubicant13


GH stays on the air strictly due to its entertainment value. Nothing from this show should EVER be taken for real "evidence" of anything other than a scam created for television.

As long as they continue to pull in moderate ratings, the network will continue to renew their contracts.

Well... I have to agree that the show turned into being about the $$$... Ya know... the good ole starz in the eyes effect. lol

I guess what I am trying to say... is they had to follow the ratings aspect... to keep the paycheck coming in. It may not have been their personal choice or decision but went with it because they had to take home the bacon.

So yeah... I saw the change in the show happen over time... seemed like the wow factor came into play on each new episode..

Being involved in an investigation... we all know that capturing evidence is rare indeed. & that when we do catch it by any means .... we know that it will be very hard to prove to any skeptic.

Rub! You know they need cash for snickers ice cream bars!

But really...I think they've sold out. But reality isn't very real. It's usually hyped up nicely.

Of the 1237 pieces of evidence we have acquired we thoroughly vented and tested; as well as against atmospheric conditions. 532 of them are very minor and could not be considered normal or explainable even went looked ta by noted groups that we sent them to.

I used to love Ghost Hunters. When I lived with my grandma a while ago now I'd always watch it, hated every episode where they found nothing lol but that made it believable. I too noticed they started finding lots of stuff every episode so I stopped watching it. Haven't even read anything about it since this post, little dose of nostalgia!

They dropped like a rock on Hulu too a while ago, that's when I knew it was definitely over!

I remember The Amazing Randi writing about how he was discussing with a producer a show about Randi searching for the paranormal such as psychics etc ...

In his book, Randi wrote something along the lines of ... The producer asked him how many psychics and paranormal people he expected to find. Randi said none. The producer never called back. Television production is complicit in this type of nonsense. Show must go on and be bigger and better than last season. People blame TAPs etc ... but it's the producers and media companies that are to blame frankly.

reply to post by Rubicant13


Just wanted to chime in and agree with you. I stopped watching Ghost Hunters years ago. When they started finding "evidence" in every. single. show. I knew something was up and got tired of it. And Jason is an ass.

Will voice the opinion most of you have voiced. They did change over time, I watched up until the point like you say that they found "evidence" every episode. It was like a slap in the face for anyone who has had thier own paranormal experience myself included. Have not watched an episode since Grant left, but honestly have not been truly interested for longer than that.

Sorry but people have to be really naive to believe mainstream media = truth..

There is only one reason to make a show and that is money, selling the broadcasting rights and merchandising and of course viewing figures. Take the news, its often biased, reality shows, anything but reality, contest based shows, rigged,

These shows rely on the viewers ability to want to believe so much that they will ignore the BS, like people who go to mediums to contact a loved one, they want to believe this person so much they will grasp at every little word as proof yet its just a cold reading.

Probably because a show of grown adults; freaking themselves out in the dark, without results; would look like a paranoid disorder of some type, rather than an actual investigation...perhaps a decision was made at some point. The show is popular so the network doesn't want to end it; but investigations coming up dry are not entertaining...so they fudged some footage. Then they have to top that footage and it snowballs they can only do so many shows saying sorry nothing here. When I watched it, I was more interested in watching what was captured than the sorry nothing here ones...as anyone would be.

So it's logical to assume the network wants to milk it until they can't; and how else to do that than fudge results? If they were to show the investigations as is as intended from the beginning...it would have been cancelled ages ago, from lack of interest. So either they sell out real investigations into the phenomena or get cancelled. I guess that can become a tough call; when money is involved and people, are trying to provide a comfortable living for their growing families.

Problem is any legitimate footage ever captured; will fall to scrutiny of hoax when the facade falls apart. Shaking confidence in the field to it's core. So it seems it's in too deep, that it will happen either way...so they just continue on...in doing so the embellishment just keeps growing? Best logical answer I can put forth to your query.

To be honest I am only responding to the question posed in the thread title: To answer it: Because it still is watched and makes advertisers money, which in turn makes money for the channel that airs said show. That is why it is still on the air. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have limited intimate knowledge regarding Ghost Hunters; a good friend of mine (who will remain nameless, due to the fact that this person still gets offers to lecture and I don't want to harm his/her income) was a member of the team for several years.

In fact, I was being considered to replace Brian Harnois before Dave Tango got placed on the investigation team. Jason and Grant (who really is a good guy btw.) had agreed to bring me in when the producers nixed it because they wanted someone with acting experience. Bear in mind that I'm not saying that Dave is an actor, as I do not know if there was any push back from Jason and Grant after I was refused a role, but those are the facts concerning my attempted appearance on the show.

You'll notice I mentioned the producers making decisions about team members, not the founders. This is a television show, ratings are what matter to them.

Most of the team (in the beginning) were unemployed, Jason and Grant of course were plumbers at the beginning, but they made and are still making good money off of it, the rest of the team in general makes their money from lecturing (this may have changed recently, but I don't know anything about that.)

Have they faked evidence? Absolutely. Every time? No. When a show gains popularity, the drive for ratings becomes paramount, since any group of people can get together and investigate people's homes and find some evidence of the paranormal and these people can be prettier, and more convincing in front of a camera which, will reduce the ratings of the original show. That's where famous sites and evidence faking comes into play.

I don't blame them for doing what they've done to maintain "relevance" in the genre, but being as how I still take investigation of the paranormal seriously, I haven't watched a single episode since I was rejected due to a lack of acting history.

Take it for what it is (more so now than when it began); a television show and nothing more.