Ghost Whisperer to Haunt SCI FI Channel
May 5, 2008

After becoming a major player in the television landscape with several highly rated original shows and other acquired series’, SCI FI Channel has added another familiar face to its line-up in Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ghost Whisperer. On Monday, May 5, SCI FI announced that they have acquired the off-network cable rights from CBS Television and will begin to air Ghost Whisperer in the Fall of 2009.

As an added bonus for fans, SCI FI will also have access to several older (but still popular) properties that will soon be put into their rotation, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, which will premiere Monday June 2, 2008, Charmed, Early Edition, Highlander, Friday the Thirteenth: The Series and the once gigantic hit sitcom Mork & Mindy, starring a then-virtually-unknown Robin Williams and the lovely Pam Dawber.

For all of the specs, here’s a look at the official release:

New York, NY - May 5, 2008 - SCI FI Channel has secured off-network cable rights to CBS’s Emmy-nominated series, Ghost Whisperer, from CBS Television Distribution, it was announced today by Thomas Vitale, SCI FI's Senior Vice President of Programming and Original Movies. SCI FI will launch the series in the fall of 2009.

In addition, SCI FI will have access to shows in the CBS library, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, which will premiere Monday June 2, 2008 on SCI FI, Charmed, Early Edition, Highlander, Friday the Thirteenth: The Series and the classic sitcom Mork & Mindy, among others.

"’Ghost Whisperer’ is an incredible addition to SCI FI’s programming inventory," said Thomas Vitale. "The paranormal is very popular with our audience, as evidenced by the huge success of our original series ‘Ghost Hunters’ and ‘Ghost Hunters International,’ television’s most popular paranormal franchise. As part of SCI FI’s primetime lineup, ‘Ghost Whisperer’ will appeal to our existing audience, while bringing in new viewers, including more women."

SCI FI will air Ghost Whisperer in a weekly 4-hour primetime stack beginning in the fall of 2009. SCI FI will be the only place on television to see weekly mini-marathons of the show. The Channel will also schedule programming stunts with full-day marathons. SCI FI will simulcast Ghost Whisperer in HD.

In Ghost Whisperer, Jennifer Love Hewitt stars as Melinda Gordon. Melinda communicates with earthbound spirits, ghosts who cling to the living because they have unfinished business that prevents them from moving beyond the familiar earthy plane of existence. The series is inspired in part by the work of famed mediums James Van Praagh and Mary Ann Winkowski. It explores the spiritual side of life and death as Melinda navigates among the living and the dead in her chilling sometimes heart-rending and sometimes amusing attempts to act as an intermediary between the ghosts and those they haunt.