http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/show-patrol/2009/10/tv-is-in-a-paranormal-state.html

TV is in a paranormal state
10/13/2009
Curt Wagner
Show Patrol

Vampires and zombies aren't the only hot creatures in pop culture at the moment.

Ghosts--all things paranormal actually--are having their moment.

Movie-goers are flocking to theaters to have the crap scared out of them by the creepy film "Paranormal Activity." "The Ghost Whisperer" is airing new eps Fridays on CBS, while Syfy shows old episodes all week in syndication. Bio channel's "Celebrity Ghost Stories" was the most-watched premiere in the network's history (and subject of an "SNL" spoof". "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Hunters International" are huge hits on Syfy. (The Ghost Hunters' trip to Chicago's Congress Theater airs in a week.)

The "Ghost Hunters" franchise is about to get bigger. Syfy will debut the new spin-off, "Ghost Hunters Academy," at 9 p.m. Nov. 11. It will focus on aspiring ghost hunters who investigate "some of the most haunted locations in the country and around the world," according to Syfy.

Veteran ghost hunters Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango will train the newbies on location at haunted spots we've seen on "Ghost Hunters" incuding Ghost Hunters including Fort Mifflin (Pennsylvania), Eastern State Penitentiary (Pennsylvania), and St. Augustine Lighthouse (Florida).

Syfy hasn't cornered the market in ghost stories. A&E has two new "Extreme Paranormal" specials coming in October.

Shaun Burris, Nathan Schoonover and Jason Gowin, hosts of the radio show and podcast "Ghostman and Demon Hunter," investigate a couple of potentially spirit-heavy locations in an asylum, a prison and a swamp.

"Extreme Paranormal: New Mexico State Penitentiary" airs at 9 p.m. Oct. 19, and "Extreme Paranormal: Pennhurst Insane Asylum & Manchac Swamp" premieres at 9 p.m. Oct. 26. (Read the details from A&E below.)

"New Mexico State Penitentiary"
The trio explore an abandoned maximum security lockup where visitors claim the tortured souls of inmates, who were violently murdered in the worst prison riot in U.S. history, still linger. Our investigators want to see if there is any truth behind the legend in this potentially volatile paranormal environment and go as far as recreating moments of this horrific event, shedding their own blood, to provoke the violent spirits to show themselves to the cameras. Then, in the first-ever underwater paranormal investigation, the team descends to the eerie depths of a remote haunted lake to locate a lost city and summon the spirit of a mass murderer who massacred seven innocent victims more than a century ago.

"Pennhurst Insane Asylum & Manchac Swamp"
The investigators explore a decrepit mental asylum and haunted swamp. Traveling deep into the heart of Manchac Swamp just outside of New Orleans where an entire town was wiped away by a massive hurricane in 1915, the trio goes as far as to bury one of their own alive in a mass gravesite in order to contact the souls of the residents. The team then travels to Eastern Pennsylvania to the Pennhurst State School, a rundown mental hospital that was closed in 1986 after decades of abuse, neglect and torture. They investigate strange sightings and unexplained phenomena and relive horrific abuses such as prolonged restraint and electroshock therapy in the hopes of experiencing and coaxing restless spirits to come out of the shadows.