As Halloween season fast approaches, the paranormal TV genre — nearly left for dead in recent years, after dominating reality programming more than a decade ago — is rising from the industry graveyard.

Taking a page from the popular true-crime genre, supernatural reality shows have been repositioned from a genre that sought to frighten viewers with sightings of evil apparitions, to one focused on the stories behind the ghosts as well as those who claim to see them. The new focus draws both men and women viewers who like good storytelling alongside their thrills, network executives said.

“When networks were doing paranormal shows back in 2010, it was done a different way — it was more of going into a haunted house with a flashlight,” Travel Channel general manager Matt Butler said. “Today, we are trying to steer the creative to be story-driven because people want to hear great stories.”

“Every category goes through phases and gets to a point where there is oversaturation, but there continues to be interest, and not surprisingly it finds its way back,” media consultant Bill Carroll said. “The audience misses what they’ve become accustomed to, in terms of being able to watch in essence things that go bump in the night.”

Paranormal TV programming was one of the more successful subcategories of the reality series genre during the mid to late 2000s. Led by shows such as Syfy’s Ghost Hunters (where it ran from 2004 to 2016) and Destination Truth, Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, Discovery Channel’s A Haunting and Bio’s Psychic Investigators, the genre exploded with scary tales of house hauntings and psychic mediums conjuring up ghosts and other non-living creatures. By 2010, there were more than 25 paranormal- themed shows on various cable networks.

Grant Wilson, co-creator of Ghost Hunters — considered the granddaddy of the genre, and revived by A&E last month — said in the late 2000s that the paranormal- themed shows showcased on-screen were relatively new and different from traditional reality fare.

Death by Unoriginality

By the mid 2010s, though, according to industry observers, the genre fizzled due to oversaturation and a lack of ingenuity. By 2017, cable networks were running less than half as many paranormal shows as were offered seven years prior, even as the genre thrived with theatrical film franchises such as The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity.

“I think there was this eruption of shows and ideas, and [other producers] saw that Ghost Hunters was a hit — the formula worked and was repeatable,” Wilson said. “There were a bunch of people who tried their hand at it and there were different techniques, but then it became too saturated and the shows weren’t succeeding.”

RELATED: 'Ghost Hunters' Grant Wilson Hoping to Scare Up New Generation of Viewers 

A&E was one of the networks that walked away from the genre in the mid 2010s after being one of its biggest supporters a decade earlier, with such shows as Celebrity Ghost Stories, Psychic Kids and Paranormal State. A&E senior vice president of development and programming Amy Savitsky said the network in 2019 has re-embraced the genre by launching a Wednesday- night slate of original, paranormal-themed shows.

“A lot of genres go through phases, and this was a genre back in the day where we had some really great successes — we had a whole slate of programming that we found our viewers were attracted to,” she said. “Today, there seems to be a burgeoning sense that people are willing to again explore the possibility of the supernatural and what might exist as more people are declaring themselves spiritual but not religious and thinking about what’s possible. We think it’s the right time to bring it back.”

While family-friendly advertisers may not be able to stomach the thrills and chills generated from paranormal programming, Billie Gold, vice president, director of TV/video activation research at media agency Dentsu Aegis, said there are plenty of companies that would advertise in genre-themed shows as the public becomes more fascinated with the facts behind the reported hauntings.

“They aren’t huge ratings-grabbers, but do well and have a slightly lower median age than typical drama fare,” she said. “There are enough advertisers that will opt in search of younger audiences on networks that have a higher median age. With technology more advanced and more experts looking into these topics, viewers are looking for plausible explanations for things they cannot explain. Viewers are seeking ‘truth’ and want to know facts.”

Indeed, a 2018 Chapman University survey of American fears reported 57.7% of people believe that places can be haunted by spirits, up from 46.6% in 2016.

Travel Channel’s Butler said the acceptance of true-life paranormal experiences has grown among viewers, leading to a renewed interest in the genre.

“There are a lot of people who believe in the paranormal, and when people have experiences it’s hard for them to talk about it for fear that people will think they are crazy,” he said. “We see our programming as allowing people to get together as a group and to see other people share their stories. I think our viewers respect and respond to that.”

Travel Channel now devotes about 30% of its programming lineup to paranormal-themed shows, including such new series as Ghost Brothers: Haunted Houseguests and Portals to Hell, as well as classic titles like Ghost Adventures, now in its 21st season, and The Dead Files, currently in its 11th season. The network has also imported new shows from other Discovery-owned networks like TLC’s Kindred Spirits.

In October, the network will premiere an episode from one of its paranormal shows every night of the month, according to Butler.

Headlining its “Ghostober” lineup is Ghost Nation, debuting Oct. 11 and starring former Ghost Hunters host Jason Hawes, and the Oct. 4 premiere of Haunted Salem: Live, a four-hour live ghost investigation in Salem, Massachusetts, which sends a team of the network’s biggest paranormal stars to investigate ghostly activity at three historic locations tied to the infamous Salem witch trials, said the network.

Butler likens the resurgence of paranormal content to that of the true-crime genre, in which networks like ID, HBO, Netflix and Oxygen shifted the category’s focus from the gory, salacious aspects of cold-blooded crimes to more of a storytelling platform that digs deeper into the incidents.

“One of the big things about the true-crime dramas is that they lean on story, and I think in today’s world, with so many [viewing] options, if you can catch an audience with a good story they will come back for more,” he said.

Added A&E’s Savitsky: “A lot of people are addicted to crime shows which are similarly trying to solve a mystery. All of our shows are rooted in a call for help … the storyline is always somebody is afraid or somebody can’t figure out a mystery that’s happening at home or in a building that they manage, so they are asking for help to solve a mystery that’s scaring them.”

Last month, A&E reintroduced paranormal programming to its audience by launching a primetime lineup of such shows, led by the Ghost Hunters reboot. The Aug. 21 A&E debut of the series, which ran on Syfy from 2004 to 2016, drew 574,000 adults 25-54 in Nielsen live-plus-3 viewing, with the second episode delivering 555,000 viewers in the demo, the network said.

“We always felt that Ghost Hunters is the OG [original gangster] of paranormal shows,” Savitsky said. “It’s the show that launched a genre and interest in paranormal investigation. When thinking about how to relaunch paranormal, it was the obvious choice to launch with Ghost Hunters.”

Wilson of Ghost Hunters said he resurrected the show to take advantage of viewers’ current heightened interest in the supernatural, adding that the new version comes at the subject from a different point of view than the original iteration.

“What we’ve done is focus less on, is it there? — that’s still part of the show — but more about, what does it all mean?” Wilson said. “A lot of people see an entity or hear a voice and then stop, but that’s where we are going to start. We’ll look at it and try to figure out what it is or who it is, what does it mean and how can we help.”

Other paranormal shows have taken similar steps to focus on the human side of the ghost story. Dalen Spratt, Juwan Mass and Marcus Harvey, the stars of Travel Channel’s Ghost Brothers, said their new show — Ghost Brothers: Haunted Houseguests, which launched in July — spends more time on the stories of those who believe they’re being haunted than on the hunt for actual ghosts.

The longtime friends whose initial Ghost Brothers series ran for two seasons (2016-17) on Destination America and TLC, said their new show actually helps individuals and families who believe their homes to be haunted by spending a weekend with them ghost-hunting, as well as researching the house and the victims’ town before providing recommendations on how to proceed. Those tips can range from introducing clients to a medium to further contact the spirit to recommending they vacate the premises altogether.

“This show is a little different from our last show, which was basically three black guys being thrown into some of the most haunted locations to see what happens,” Spratt said. “With our new series, we look at the full story and there is eventually a [resolution]. Families actually reach out to us and let us know that their houses are haunted and they are seeking some type of validation and help, and we try to provide that to them.”

No Fears of Ghost Fatigue

A&E’s Savitsky said that she’s not worried about the genre suffering the same fate as a decade ago and that it will thrive as viewers turns to paranormal programming for thrills and captivating stories. “I have no concerns because each show has a different way in — that’s one of the differences we’re seeing this time around,” she said. “We’re very diligent on how we execute our shows to make sure they are different. But for me, the genre never went away.”

Added Carroll: “I think, ultimately, the audiences will tell you whether this is the right time for the genre to be successful. Obviously, the people putting together these shows believe it’s the right time to bring back the genre, but in the end it’s the audience that will let us know.”

A&E tonight (Aug. 21) brings back the granddaddy of paranormal-themed reality series, Ghost Hunters, after a 15-year absence from television screens. The series follows Grant Wilson -- one of the original show’s team leaders -- and a handpicked group of professional ghost hunters as they use their decades of field experience to investigate hauntings across the country.

Wilson recently explained to me the success of the first iteration of Ghost Hunters, his decision to leave the show, and his reasons for reviving the show in a recent interview, an edited version of which appears below.

How will this version of Ghost Hunters differ from the original series?

It will be very familiar in that we go in, we talk to the person, we try to dispute stuff and we try to find stuff. It's a very familiar format, but the audience has gotten smarter over the years, so we can’t come back and do the exact same thing. What we’ve done is focus less on 'is it there?' -- that‘s still part of the show -- but more about what does it all mean. A lot of people see an entity or hear a voice and then stop, but that’s where we are going to start. We’ll look at it and try to figure out what it is or who it is, what does it mean and how can we help. We’re showing people how to think differently, so it's much more about treating the clients and entities like the people they are.

Why did you decide to bring it back now?

That’s a good question. I left because I wanted to be with my three boys during their teenage years, and I felt I met a lot of the goals I set out to accomplish, one of which was to raise awareness. I wanted people to know that if they thought their house was haunted there was somewhere to turn to. Also, I wanted people to know that if they were interested in this stuff there’s a way to do it that helps people. So we built this momentum [for the show] to the point where I said I could stop and be with my family again. But I started to watch the [genre] change -- it was growing which is good, but there’s a lot of it that’s going just to the left of center. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, but it [the genre] was naturally drifting. So at that point I felt I needed to get my voice back out there and needed to take it to the next level. It’s not just about a different team doing the same thing and it's not about demons; it's bringing back the humanity and showing that these are real people and that we can do a lot of good with this.

You mentioned the genre’s ebbs and flows in popularity over the years. Why has it become popular again?

I think there was this eruption of shows and ideas, and [other producers] saw that Ghost Hunters was a hit -- the formula worked and was repeatable. There were a bunch of people who tried their hand at it and there were different techniques, but then it became too saturated and the shows weren’t succeeding. Now people are starting to see what they were missing and [the genre] has come back strong.

Are you concerned that the genre may again find itself suffering from over-saturation given the number of shows currently in the marketplace?

What we really need to do is avoid that same repetition. Imagine you sit down in kindergarten and they teach you how to color inside the lines, but now your 15 and they’re still teaching you that same thing. That’s when it gets frustrating. We have to advance the programming -- as the audience gets smarter, we have to get smarter. We’re doing that here, and the plan is to constantly engage the audience and push a little further so as they get smarter the show stays current instead of getting stuck in a template.

A&E will look to mine the paranormal reality genre with the return of Ghost Hunters as well as re-imagined versions of Psychic Kids and Celebrity Ghost Stories, the network said Wednesday.

Ghost Hunters, which aired for 11 seasons on Syfy from 2004 to 2016, will debut on A&E Aug. 21 with a 20-episode run featuring one of the show’s original team leaders, Grant Wilson, as he and a group of professional ghost hunters investigate hauntings across the country, said the network.

The network will also bring back paranormal-themed series Psychic Kids nine years after its run on the network. The series, which in its initial run followed several children who reported to have psychic abilities, will return Aug. 11 with eight episodes that revisit those original kids -- now successful adults -- as they empower a new generation of young psychics alongside trained licensed therapists, said the network.

Celebrity Ghost Stories also returns to A&E this fall after a five-year hiatus, and follows paranormal storyteller and world-renowned psychic-medium Kim Russo as she brings some of the biggest names in entertainment back to the sites of their paranormal experiences for an unfiltered reunion with the ghosts of their past, according to the network.

New shows coming to A&E this fall within the paranormal genre include Trey the Texas Medium and special World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt.

“A&E has been on the forefront of programming in the paranormal space and with that success, we have been eager to bring the genre back to the network for some time,” said Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming for A&E Network in a statement. “Each of these series has a unique point of view, but will collectively give our audience a window into a world of spellbinding stories that have to be seen to be believed.”

Syfy networks will continue to chill in the paranormal space with the renewals of reality series Ghost Hunters and Paranormal Witness, the network said Wednesday.

Ghost Hunters will return for its 12th season, while Paranormal Witness will look to haunt viewers for a fourth season. Both hit paranormal series will debut their respective new seasons in 2015 with 13 episode orders each, according to Syfy.

Ghost Hunters is averaging 1.7 million viewers during its currently running ninth season, while Paranormal Witness scared up 1.47 million viewers during the 2013 run of season three, according to the network.

 “We couldn’t be more excited about entering a brand new decade of paranormal investigations with Jason Hawes, a refreshed TAPS team and Ghost Hunters,” said Heather Olander, senior vice president of alternative series development and production for Syfy in a statement. “We also eagerly anticipate the return of a revitalized and scarier than ever Paranormal Witness: True Terror, which features shocking firsthand accounts of truly frightening and skin-crawling supernatural experiences – including the real-life story of the hit movie, The Conjuring.”

Ghost chasers embark at night to an old-butrestored federal building in Georgia to investigate reports of unusual happenings inside, near where a police officer was gunned down in 1890.

As the chasers — loaded up with night-view cameras, flashlights and recording devices — call out to contact the spirit of the officer, a loud bang permeates the silence of the hallway inside, sending the chasers scrambling first for their safety and then to see who or what may have been responsible for the noise.

The spine-tingling scene was from the current season of Syfy’s venerable paranormal series Ghost Hunters. While the chasers may have been frightened on camera, can ghosts, spirits and dead relatives scare up ratings on the small screen for cable networks?

With nearly half of all Americans believing in ghosts or spirits of dead people that come back into our lives, networks such as Destination America, Syfy, Travel Channel and LMN are turning to the afterlife for inspiration.

New reality series featuring haunted houses, ghostly apparitions — both friendly and evil — and other paranormal activity have sparked new life into ratings for some cable networks.

Executives said that these shows are getting a boost from a fanatical subculture that believes in the supernatural and paranormal, and flock to reality-based paranormal shows that reflect their beliefs. Nearly 65% of people believe there is life after death, with 43% of people believe the spirits of dead people can return in certain places or situations, according to a 2013 Huffington Post and YouGov poll.

In addition, a recent Pew Research survey reported that 18% of U.S. adults said they’ve actually interacted with a ghost, and 29% said they have felt in touch with someone who has died.

“There’s a large percentage of people who believe in the afterlife and its ties into this deep-seeded desire for life to continue afterwards and to also talk to love ones for closure, so I think that’s what we’re tapping into,” Marc Etkind, general manager for Destination America, said. This month alone, Etkind’s network is offering four new paranormal and monster-themed shows — Ghost Asylum, Ghost Stalkers, Amish Haunting and Alaska Monsters.

“There are a lot of unexplained things happening in the world and so I think the audience likes to go for that ride,” he added.

Viewers are turning to ghost-themed reality shows in part because even in this age of technology, viewers are still seeking ways to reach relatives and close friends who have passed away. Moreover, ominous news stories like the Ebola scare and the threat of terrorism can nudge viewers to seek answers about life and the afterlife, some executives said.

“There’s a natural inclination to wonder if it’s real of if it really exists,” said Bill McGoldrick, executive vice president of original content for Syfy, which on Wednesday (Oct. 22) will air the 200th episode of its signature paranormal series Ghost Hunters. Now in its ninth season, Ghost Hunters averages 1.7 million viewers and is the network’s second most-watched series among total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.

“I think anybody, whether they are a sci-fi fan or not, wants to answer the question of whether there’s an afterlife or are there spirits among us,” McGoldrick added. “That will always be at the core of what drives this stuff.”

Surprisingly, paranormalthemed shows are also striking a chord with female viewers, who are intrigued with emotional and haunting stories of the afterlife. Network executives said female viewers make up 55% to 60% of the audience for most paranormal-based reality shows.

Destination America’s Ghost Asylum, in which a team of ghost chasers look for the undead in abandoned asylums, launched Sept. 9 and already ranks as the network’s most watched series ever among women 25-54 and women 18-49, said network officials.

On LMN, several paranormal shows are resonating with its target female viewers including the network’s most-watched series My Haunted House, which through reenactments tells stories of people living in terror.

“There’s a spiritual fascination in things outside of ourselves and understanding what energies may exist beyond what we know,” Laura Flury, vice president and head of programming and development for LMN, said. “I also think there’s something comforting and sometimes scary about the fact that when people pass on there might still be a way to communicate with them.”

While paranormal-themed series are not new — shows like In Search of … in the 1970s, and the more recent Paranormal State and Celebrity Ghost Stories, have all chronicled tales of the unknown — the success of genre-based Hollywood films and scripted TV series have bolstered the category.

The Paranormal Activity film franchise has generated nearly $390 million in box office revenue over five films since 2009. On television, horror-themed shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead and FX’s American Horror Story have generated record ratings for their respective networks. The Oct. 12 fifth-season premiere of The Walking Dead drew an AMC-record 17.5 million viewers, while American Horror Story: Freak Show — the fourth iteration of the anthology series — drew a network record 10 million viewers in live-plus-3 ratings, Nielsen said.

Other shows like WGN America’s Salem, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow, FX’s The Strain, HBO’s True Blood and Netflix’s Hemlock Grove have also drawn significantly high viewership within the genre.

“The genre has gained a lot of momentum over the past few years and networks are beginning to see that,” said Ross Babbit, senior vice president of programming and development for Travel Channel, which airs the highly rated Ghost Adventures, now in its 10th season. “The paranormal audience is so passionate about the genre that they’ll tend to watch and rate all the shows in the space.”

Added Etkind: “This genre has proved popular from the beginning of TV and these are great American campfire stories,” he said. “You think about the Salem witchcraft trials and Sleepy Hollow — these are stories that have been passed on for generations in America. Every town has that building or asylum that you don’t go into.”

Even nonbelievers are tuning into the paranormal reality series genre, if nothing else for the entertainment value, according to Babbit.

“You watch because you either believe or you don’t, or you’re entertained by the people who are trying to find ghosts,” he said. “I don’t know if you have to believe, but it’s really entertaining. Who really knows what the truth is, but these guys are very passionate about what they do.”

Still skepticism abounds, and it’s not clear how long the genre can deliver consistent ratings. Destination America’s Etkind maintains the genre is alive and well for now.

“With the belief rates at record highs there’s always going to be room for a new creative idea in this space,” he said. “These types of shows have been on TV for a long time and they’re here to stay … We’re just looking for new ways to tell them.”