May 20th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.about.com/

Despite earlier reports of renewal, it was revealed this week that NBC has elected to cancel the Patricia Arquette paranormal series Medium after all. CBS, whose corporate sibling CBS Studios produces the show, is now reported to be picking it up.

Industry media is positioning the story as a feud between NBC and CBS. NBC co-chair Ben Silverman amazed everyone when he called Medium, created by Glenn Gordon Caron, “an aging franchise, without a single fan letter, with no passion.” Harsh!

“NBC’s cancellation of Medium is inexplicable to us,” CBS Studios responded in a statement. “The ratings don’t lie: Medium outperforms many of NBC’s renewed shows. We believe the show has a significant future and await developments.”

CBS Studios has reportedly convinced CBS Network to pick up the show. Of course, CBS already has a somewhat similar paranormal series, the high-rated Ghost Whisperer, after which Medium is being slotted (Fridays at 9, before Numb3rs). But savvy marketing will certainly package them as a Friday night ghost-watcher bloc, and Ghost as a lead-in should deliver a good audience to Medium.

Popularity: 20% [?]

May 20th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

The CW may be the latest network to make a bold move on Thursday.

After days of rumblings, the CW is said to have settled on launching the hot new drama “Vampire Diaries” Thursday 8 p.m., paired with “Supernatural.” “Vampire Diaries” would replace the staple in the time slot, departing veteran “Smallville,” whose final ninth season would air on Friday, probably at 8 p.m.

The network is set to unveil its fall schedule Thursday in New York.

“Vampire Diaries,” about a girl in a love triangle with two vampire brothers, is envisioned as a new tentpole series for Thursday night where the network already has built-in sci-fi audience with “Smallville” and “Supernatural.”

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Popularity: 21% [?]

March 16th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.pnj.com/
Listen: chip-off-the-old-block

Unlike the ghost-besieged boy in the movie, “The Sixth Sense,” Chip Coffey does not see dead people. Well. Not often.

Usually, spirits and wandering souls communicate to the Atlanta psychic through energy, mental imagery or by speaking to him, he explained.

“It’s rare for me to see them as a full apparition,” said Coffey, who will speak at the Circle of Life Expo this weekend at the Pensacola Interstate Fairgrounds. “But it happens.”

The soft-spoken 54-year-old said he has been psychic “since childhood,” and a professional medium and paranormal investigator since 2001. Most would recognize Coffey, with his trademark buzz cut and glasses, from his frequent appearances on the A&E cable series, “Paranormal State,” which follows a team of investigators from Penn State University’s Paranormal Research Society.

Organizers of the Expo, a physical, metaphysical and spiritual festival, say they are excited to present the celebrity psychic.

“I watch Chip on ‘Paranormal State’ just like everyone else,” said Cindy Greene, event organizer and owner of The Mystic Cottage, a metaphysical gift store on Mobile Highway. “So many people are interested in the paranormal and in Chip. He’s so down-to-earth.”

Coffey certainly is matter-of-fact when it comes to discussing what he believes are his God-given abilities.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

March 16th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.eonline.com/
Listen: who-got-jennifer-love-hewitt-pregnant

Jennifer Love Hewitt is having a baby!

OK, maybe not in real life, but her Ghost Whisperer character, Melinda Gordon, is finally preggers.

So who’s the proud papa? Jim or Sam? All signs point to…Jim!

(

Bet the tabs wish it were J.Love’s real-life love interest, Ghost costar Jamie Kennedy!)

“Do the math,” says Ghost Whisperer show runner P.K. Simonds, “less time has passed for our characters than has passed in the broadcast calendar…basically, time slowed down in the aftermath of the big events at the beginning of the season. [The 12 episodes] since Jim died have taken less than 12 weeks in terms of Jim and Melinda’s lives.”

Whaaa?

Read on for more about the pregnancy, Melinda’s dead husband and tonight’s epic episode…

So Melinda could’ve been pregnant this whole time without realizing it? Says Simonds, “Sometimes you don’t notice something like that. Especially going through what she’s gone through—the cycles [can be] interrupted by traumatic events.”

Simonds wants fans to remember that the season “started with [Jim and Melinda] trying to become pregnant, trying very hard [and] facing some obstacles. And just as they seemed to get past those obstacles, tragedy struck.”

Tragedy, of course, being Jim’s death—and his amnesia after being reincarnated in Sam’s body.

And the final blow Sam delivers to his new girlfriend after she at last confides he is really Jim: He believes Melinda Gordon is a mentally unstable widow who is using him as a substitute for her dead husband. (Jim, how could you?!)

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Popularity: 37% [?]

March 11th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.dose.ca/
Listen: david-conrad-wont-give-up-the-ghost

For most people, the day they find out they’re going to die is the worst day of their life. But David Conrad’s reaction was one of bemusement.

After three seasons playing Jim Clancy on Ghost Whisperer, the CBS supernatural series about a woman who talks to ghosts, the writers sat down with Conrad and told him that his character was going to die in Season 4. In a shocking episode, Jim is fatally shot, leaving his psychic wife Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to help his spirit cross over to the other side.

“The head writer said, ‘Hey, we really need to have a meeting.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, boy. Here it comes,’” Conrad remembers. “It was funny, actually – he was like, ‘We’re going to kill you off, but… you’re still on the show.’”

One of the perks of starring on a supernatural-themed show is that a character’s death doesn’t necessarily mean the actor should start looking for work. In this case, Jim refuses to go into the light; instead, he enters the body of another recently-deceased man, who wakes up with no memory of his past life. While other characters can only see the other man, when Melinda looks at him, she – and the viewers – see Jim, meaning Conrad gets to keep his day job.

But not everyone reacted to Jim’s death and rebirth as well as Conrad did. When news of the storyline first leaked last September, fans immediately took to the Internet to voice their intense displeasure, with most threatening to stop watching the show altogether. Even as the plot unfolded throughout the season, viewers continued to express anger towards.

“The new story line is a flop. I think Melinda and Jim need to be together to make the show work, not with this crazy thing of Jim’s spirit in someone else,” one viewer posted on a Dose.ca forum. “I always looked forward to watching on Fridays, if they don’t bring Jim back (in the flesh), I will find another show to watch.”

Added another: “The writers of this plot twist should be FIRED! …This all better be a dream or something! If this plot isn’t done and over by the first epi of the next season, I am done with the show!”

Yet, surprisingly, Ghost Whisperer’s ratings have gone up. So far, the fourth season is averaging 10.5 million US viewers, up from 9.3 million last year; its Feb. 28 episode earned 11.54 million viewers, putting it in the No. 15 spot in the Nielsen ratings and beating out hit shows like Lost and The Amazing Race. Not bad for a Friday-night show whose fans keep threatening to revolt.

“I think they’re angry in the sense of, ‘This chicken’s terrible! And it comes in such small portions!’” says Conrad. “They’re pissed about something but only while they’re watching it. I think the writers irked people just right – and they did it in few enough episodes that viewers followed it to get what they wanted.”

The 40-year-old actor isn’t phased by any of the negative fan reaction, focusing instead on the new challenges brought on by the story line.

“The thing that was most interesting about it, to me, was what it gave us the opportunity to do. If I lost my memory completely about Melinda, there was the idea that they could start flirting again and courting each other,” he explains. “It was weird – when you’ve worked with someone day in and day out for a few years, it’s neat to suddenly play a scene where we don’t know each other. Playing a supportive husband and wife translates into Jennifer and I watching each others’ backs on the set. To be in a scenario where you’re not supposed to be doing that is a little awkward; a little strange. It felt sort of alien, but kind of cool.”

That attitude is exactly how Conrad approached acting in the first place. The Pittsburgh native never intended to become an actor but fell into the industry almost by accident.

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Popularity: 31% [?]

March 5th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com/

Last night, as I was waiting for the subway, I noticed a poster for the upcoming horror flick, The Haunting in Connecticut (in theaters March 27). It wasn’t the absurdly geographically specific title that caught my eye, but the nasty picture of a kid barfing up what looks like part of the faun in Pan’s Labyrinth. Then I saw the tagline: “Some things cannot be explained.” Um, yeah — some things like how a marketing person convinced studio execs that that disgusting picture should be the poster image! Anyway, I watched the trailer (below) today and discovered more horror-movie clichés in that one short clip than you could ever dream of trying to cram into an entire movie.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

March 3rd, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/

Listen: delusions-of-grandview

“Ghost Whisperer” features new episode “Delusions of Grandview”
this Friday, March 6 @ 8pm ET/PT on CBS.

Just as Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) goes way out on a limb by agreeing to show Sam/Jim (David Conrad) what she actually does, a bizarre and dangerous case falls in her lap.

Seems a brand new elementary school is haunted by its former residents — the dead inmates of the insane asylum, which once occupied the same building decades ago.

Melinda and Sam’s delicate new bond is stretched to the breaking point when Melinda is finally forced to tell him the truth about where his strange memories have been coming from — and who he really is.

Popularity: 26% [?]

February 27th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.tvfodder.com/

Listen: supernatural-renewed-for-5th-season

Just a quick news note. Sites all over the internet are reporting that Supernatural was renewed this week.

However, I have been unable to find an official announcement, though there’s no reason to believe it’s untrue. The ratings have been stronger than ever, and the storyline and writing have made this the best season yet, in my opinion.

Now, I guess we get to fidget and wait until the summer conventions to hear if Kripke is sticking to his 5 years and out plan for the show. While I’m sure Jared and Jensen appreciate the (somewhat) steady paycheck, this show is brutal on the actors from all indications. Maybe everyone will be ready to move on at the end of season 5. Or maybe not?

Popularity: 22% [?]

February 25th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/
Listen: toughening-up-to-rude-ghosts

The question is, would you go to her if you were a recently deceased person with an unresolved issue? And if so, would you be so rude as to interrupt her at all hours of the day and night, whatever she is doing, as the ghosts do on this show?

One thing this programme teaches us is that the undead have no manners.

Melinda is toughening up, thank goodness, starting to boss those pestilential ghosts around.

She actually stuck her hands on her hips and told a whole bunch of them to scram this week, which, given her Pollyanna-ish manners, was nearly as shocking as if she had told them to eff off.

But what she really needs is a seriously tough sidekick, someone like Endora from Bewitched. “Oh, reeally! Make an appointment, Derwood, or whatever your name is.”

Still, as silly as this show is, Hewitt is ridiculously fetching as the sweet-as-pie newlywed, and after a break of a few months, it is quite fun to see the tricksy stories about ghosts and their complicated past lives again.

Melinda appears to use a similar technique to that used by Cesar on Dog Whisperer, to impose “calm, submissive energy” on her ghosts, before indulging them. They always start by behaving badly, then end up trotting like happy little pitbulls towards the Light.

It still rankles that Melinda never tells them what the Light is, and whether you can get a decent latte there, and does it have broadband?

And that, even more amazingly, the ghosts never bother to ask. But, as you have to keep reminding yourself, it’s only television.

Later on TV3 on Sunday came another of those unsung late-night treasures which, had the channel’s programmers had their wits about them, would have been trailered as “The Original, Real-Life Jaws”.

Twelve Days of Terror sounded like another of those shlocky horror B-movies, but was in fact a Discovery Channel docu-drama on the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks.

It was this celebrated phenomenon, in which two people died – that we know of – and a child was horribly maimed, that inspired Peter Benchley to write Jaws.

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Popularity: 26% [?]

February 25th, 2009 by CVPI

Source: http://www.connectsavannah.com/

Listen: new-tv-pilot-looks-at-haunted-savannah

LET’S face it. Many of the people who bring money to Savannah have been dead for years — sometimes centuries.

The designation of Savannah as America’s Most Haunted city a few years ago by a national parapsychologist was just the latest nod to the city’s ghostly history. There are many books about haunted Savannah and many more planned. Ghostly tours run along city streets at night, and customers can even travel by hearse to get their thrills and chills.

Savannahians love their ghosts, and have no desire to exorcise them. But the focus on the supernatural in Savannah may be undergoing a huge change.

On Feb. 28, a new television pilot will be premiered at The Distillery. Phantoms of History: Savannah was produced by Crissy Earheart, James Caskey and Murray Silver, who worked together on a PBS documentary, Southern Haunts.

Earheart, the executive producer, is from Nashville and has been affiliated with the Grand Ole Opry for 30 years. Silver, a fifth-generation Savannahian, is the author of Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Caskey is the owner and operator of Cobblestone Tours, a local company that offers both haunted walking and haunted pub tours.

“Phantoms of History is the pilot for a new television series developed for the A&E Channel,” Silver says. “Its first episode is devoted to Savannah, in an effort to give tourists a fresh reason to visit this historic city.”

While there’s no doubt Savannah’s ghosts are lucrative, the producers believe tourist interest is shifting towards an appreciation of Savannah’s history. “That a place may be haunted only seems to underscore its historic importance, and is no longer its most important aspect,” Silver says.

At the premiere, the episode will be screened and the producers will talk about the project in general and Savannah in particular. DVDs will be available at the premiere and at the Visitor’s Center, the Trolley Stop shops, the Book Gift Shop and True Grits.

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has run its course and we haven’t had a major motion picture filmed here in the past eight years,” Silver says.

“The reason given by tourists most often for coming to Savannah these days is to eat lunch with Paula Deen,” Silver says. “We hope that Phantoms of History provides a fresh reason to visit Savannah, and reminds viewers of the reasons why they were interested in the town in the first place — her history and her natural beauty.”

Popularity: 22% [?]