A spin-off of the SyFy channel reality show "Ghost Hunters," "Ghost Hunters Academy" premiered tonight at 10 p.m.
This show follows ghost hunting trainees as they learn the in and outs of the ghost hunting world.
The episode began by showing the viewers who the trainees will be. There are only five of them, Susan, Ben, Chris, Heathyr, and Karl. Two members of "TAPS," the ghost hunting team on "Ghost Hunters," Steve and Tango, are the trainers throughout the entire season. Grant and Jason, the TAPS founders kicked off the episode by warning the trainees that they should not mess up or will be kicked off quickly because there are many other people that want to be in the competition, in which one person will be chosen as a TAPS team member in the end.
Heathyr revealed immediately that she is a medium, a person who can communicate with the dead. Because of her ability, she chose not to tour the facility of her first investigation in Philadelphia. She felt that it would give her a bias because she would know things she wanted to find out on her own.
Steve and Tango were able to watch some of the trainees on camera as they were walking around hunting for ghosts. Two of the trainees got in trouble half-way through the episode for "taking a break" from the investigation. They left a room too early and Steve and Tango believed they should have stayed longer. One of the trainees that got in trouble, Ben, said he doesn't like to get yelled at, just as most people, but accepted it and seemed to learn from it.
Susan got very emotional and felt extreme sadness at one point during the investigation and had to walk out. She then revealed that she was a psychic and feels spirits' emotions. She had been trying to hide that fact because investigators don't really like psychics, as they believe they are not scientific. Susan said she wanted to focus on the scientific part of ghost hunting, but that didn't work out for her.
The trainees then analyzed all of the audio and video captured during their night of ghost hunting. As the show progressed, a few of the trainees seemed to feel or see some strange things, however, nothing ever significant was found by the trainees or Steve and Tango.
Although there was no outrageous supernatural phenomenon captured, the show was about as intriguing as "Ghost Hunters," but of course slightly different considering that the main stars are not already ghost hunters.
"Rad and Bad Reality" predicts "Ghost Hunters Academy" will be just as successful and "Ghost Hunters," which has almost three million viewers, considering it is produced by the same people, bascially stars the same people, and it is on the same channel directly after "Ghost Hunters."
"Rad and Bad Reality" believes a post like this is important because it discusses a brand new reality series. It reflects the traditional news values of audience and timeliness because it is important to introduce an audience to a new show and recap what happened in case they missed it. Missing the first episode can be confusing because the characters will be new to the audience the second time around, but are not new to most viewers. It is also important to state whether or not the show seemed like it may stay around just as long as "Ghost Hunters" has, which is now in season five. It reflects timeliness because this post was posted as soon as possible after the episode ended so it could be found through a search engine soon after the show if someone was looking for something in particular, but also so there would be a recap very quickly in case someone missed the episode and wants to know how the show started.
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"Generation Hot"
14 years ago
I am a GH fan and have now become a fan of GHA. I always felt like I learned a lot about the hunt from watching TAPS and it is kind of interesting to see my knowledge being put to the test. When Steve and Tango scold/give their trainees tips, I like to see if it was something I considered, or a flaw I noticed. It makes me wonder if I would be good at it.
ReplyDeleteGHA makes me wonder if I would be good at it as well! I have been a fan of GH for years now, so naturally I began watching GHA as soon as it aired. I think it is interesting to put my knowledge to the test as well. I'm sure they can all hear and see things better than I can since I am watching it through a television screen, but it is still fun to see if I pick up on something.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy the live Halloween episode of GH because it is like we are actually the ghost hunters as we get to hit the panic button if we believe we see something. I don't think I would ever be brave enough to actually hunt for ghosts in person though!
I religiously watch GH, and I was disappointed in the GHI spin-off, so when GHA came out I was weary, but I think Steve and Tango have it pretty much covered.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely pleasantly surprised by how good this show is.
I was excited, but kind of disapointed as well just because spin-offs usually don't turn out well. I think Steve and Tango are doing well, though. I think I do prefer GHs, though, for the simple fact that it is is scarier and I feel like they are actually ghost hunting instead of just in training and looking around.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch GH, too — I always like that show — but that's when our cable had Sci-Fi, not Syfy. Comcast just got too pricey.
ReplyDeleteCable does keep getting more and more expensive, so I have DishNetwork. So far, in quite a few years, the prices have changed. Any idea why it changed to Syfy anyway? I couldn't figure it out. Perhaps another company bought them? Sci-Fi just makes more sense to me since it is short for "Science Fiction." Just kind of a strange name change since it is so similar and means the same thing, but the spelling just changed. Actually, it's a little confusing.
ReplyDelete