TVSquad

It's worked for other shows; Desperate Housewives revitalized itself after a timely time jump. Now comes word that producers are considering a five year jump for Ghost Whisperer for this upcoming season. Said word comes from Ausiello over at EW, so it may just be a rumor that doesn't pan out, but I agree with Mandi over at PopWatch that it could be just the boost the show needs. Primarily because the idea of Melinda's extra-curricular activities jibing with juggling a newborn were looking awkward at best.

She'd either look like a negligent parent by leaving the baby constantly to help one spirit or another, or she'd be carting said baby around, or they'd pull an Everybody Loves Raymond and just kind of ignore that the kids are around. Plus, as Mandi indicated, that gives us a chance of Melinda's baby being old enough to start doing some of those amazing things that he's supposed to be able to do. Plus, we can get flashbacks (Hi, Lost) of that gap to fill us in and we can delve knee-deep into the good vs. evil battle. Maybe they could even have the Winchester boys show up in a cameo.

Last fall, most Ghost Whisperer's fans were shocked by Jim's death. Most of the people who commented on the various posts I wrote about the topic claimed they would never watch the series again even if actor David Conrad was sticking around.

As I said back then, I was willing to give the show a chance and see where the writers were taking us with this Sam/Jim 2.0 storyline. So now that it's been a few months and especially in light of what happened in the March 6 episode, am I still willing to stick with the show? Are you?

... Eleven babes worth watchin'

Oh sure, there may be 12 shows a stinkin', but there's still reason to tune in. See just like advertisers, show-runners and TV executives know that sex sells. And hot chicks sell. And hot chicks selling their sexuality sell like hotcakes ... or chicks ... I never can get that right. But just being hot and sexy isn't enough. To really sell it, they need to be as close to naked as legally allowed on the airwaves. We're talking "Oops, sorry to barge in on you standing there in your underwear bending over the bed pulling on your fishnet stockings. Nice rack."

Sometimes near-nudity, and even nudity, legitimately serves the plot. Let's face it, Anna Paquin had to bang that vampire on True Blood so she was going to have to get naked. It's a necessity. But Yvonne Strahovski on Chuck? Does she have to be in her underwear that often to protect the Intersect? Was it required by Simon Elder that Karen Darling be in her underwear in order to talk to him? Of course not. But it's hot and that's the way we like it. Hell, they made Catalina a stripper on My Name is Earl.

Welcome to TV Squad Ten, a new semi-weekly feature where we list ten fun things about the current state of TV.

Before writing my thoughts on Ghost Whisperer's Sam (aka Jim 2.0), I wanted to give the new character a chance. Now that the last episode before the Holiday hiatus has aired, it's time for me to weigh in on Sam and how his relationship with Melinda is working.

I could have easily written a "10 reasons why Jim 2.0 will not work out" (Sam is no Jim being the first reason on my list) but I want to stay positive about the series and feel like the hours I've put in catching up these past months will not have been for nothing. So here we go with 10 reasons why Jim 2.0 will work out in the end and why this twist is helping the show.

Many of you were pretty vocal after watching last week's episode of Ghost Whisperer. Based on the comments left to my "Reactions to Ghost Whisperer's big twist" post, it was clear that the majority was not pleased with Jim's death and a lot of you claimed you would never watch the series again! My guess is that many of you tuned in this week anyway to see what would happen to Jim. Would he cross over? Would he stay in between? Would he wake up and discover it was all a dream? Would he find a way to be alive again?

Sadly, the answer, for now, takes the form of actor Kenneth Mitchell.

There you have it people, Ghost Whisperer's big twist was revealed in this week's episode titled "Imaginary Friends & Enemies." If you've been keeping up with spoilers about the show, you knew about this event since the end of August. When the info was released, fans strongly reacted to it which prompted the brains behind the show to address the upcoming death in interviews posted on the web. No matter what the creators said about the storyline being really interesting and opening new possibilities for the show, some fans were in denial and actually thought the creators would not go ahead with their plan. Sadly for them, the creators did not tweak their plan.

Now that the big death occurred, what do fans think about the twist?

It won't be a surprise if I admit that I watch a lot of TV. Maybe even a bit too much. Amongst all the series I watch, there were no spooky or horror series until last May. That's when, looking for something new to me to watch during the days since I was working from home, I decided to give CBS's Ghost Whisperer a try. The series's first and second seasons where airing daily on a local specialized channel last spring.

Since the series premiere of GW, I've kept in the loop as to what the show was about and what was going on (spoilers column obliges). However, I never felt compelled to tune in mostly because I get scared quite easily by TV series and movies that deal with ghosts. You will never catch me watching Ghost Hunters. Never. And until the special black and white episode of Supernatural last week, I never watched a full episode of the series. Actually, I turn the TV off five minutes in the series premiere.

Surprisingly to me, I ended up not only watching the reruns of seasons one and two of the series but also made sure to catch up with the CBS reruns of the third season in order to be ready for September.

Hello! My name is Isabelle and I'm now a fan of Ghost Whisperer. Here's why.

As Jason wrote the other day, this has been a strange TV season thus far, with only two shows having been given the pink slip. That said, I think CBS's The Ex List is not long for this world. There are a couple of really good reasons I say this, and just so you know, I'm not wishing for its demise. I can just read the handwriting on the wall.

The Nielsen ratings from last Friday show that the shows around The Ex List -- Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs -- posted their highest ratings of the season to date. Nearly 10 million viewers watched the Jennifer Love Hewitt show, while another 9 million were glued to the Rob Morrow brotherly procedural at 10 p.m. In between, however, The Ex List drooped to a season low 5.6 million.

The show Ghost Whisperer is no stranger to major changes in its status quo. They wrapped up their first season by having Jennifer Love Hewitt's Melinda Gordon lose her best friend Andrea (Aisha Tyler), only to have to deal with her spirit to launch the second season. It made for an emotionally powerful episode and a tragedy that drove Melinda into that new year.

Michael Ausiello, who is generally pretty spot-on with his rumors, dropped a pretty big bombshell of some possible happenings early on in this upcoming season. Now I've already admitted on this very site that Ghost Whisperer is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I've had the joy of growing up with Jennifer Love Hewitt from her days on Party of Five and she's still just too gosh-darned cute to stop watching now. And dammit if the writers don't know how to pull the heartstrings in almost every episode, too. But now ... well, we'll talk about it after the jump.

I've heard and read it a million times in interviews. Johnny X of the show YZ says he just doesn't have time to watch much TV. Maybe the news here or there. And I'm sorry, but I was always pretty suspicious of that. Even moreso when they say they've never watched much TV. Then why did they want to get into TV in the first place? Frazier Moore of the AP talked about the phenomenon of TV actors shunning TV and speculated it may have to do with the old stigma that TV acting is somehow akin to writing pulp romance novels. After all, "real" writers moonlight in that arena, albeit with pen names.

I wonder, though, if it isn't more that they're trying to put on an appearance of someone who is above the "pedestrian" fare of television, elevating themselves to the so-called loftier perches of the stage and big screen actors. After all, don't many television actors aspire to move onto the more prestigious film world. Is television still something to be ashamed of?

Whew! After several days of sore feet (and sore booties from sitting on the hard floor waiting for the next panel), dwindling funds, and tons of TV-related panels, San Diego Comic-Con comes to an end. That doesn't mean that all of the television folks have packed up an left in order to catch the Silver Bullet train to Los Angeles (does a train even run between San Diego and Los Angeles?) or an aeroplane to Vancouver. There are still some panels waiting for your utmost attention.

It's Kids' Day at the convention, so there are panels on a Mr. SquarePants, Phineas and Ferb, The Backyardigans, and those wacky Muppets from Fraggle Rock. For the more adult crowd there are Q&As for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Supernatural, Smallville, and another panel on cartoon voices. The final TV-related event is a rousing sing-a-long with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling." After that, you can climb into your hotel bed, train berth, car seat, or nearby street corner resplendent with the fact that you had taken in everything television at the Comic-Con.

So, if you are staying just one more day, here are the television-related events for Sunday, July 27th. For a full schedule of events you can check out the official schedule on the Comic-Con website. And, for old times sake, remember that times, panelists and events can change at a moment's notice. That, and the panels are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Saturn awards ceremony was held last night, and Lost dominated the television categories with four wins. The drama won the award for Best Network Series and nearly swept the acting categories. Evangeline Lilly lost the Best Actress award to Ghost Whisperer's Jennifer Love Hewitt, last year's winner. Most of the first-time nominees, such as Pushing Daisies and Journeyman, were shut out. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the only exception; Summer Glau tied for Best Supporting Actress.

Comedian Jeffrey Ross hosted the event. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a successful awards season for Lost. A complete list of winners in the television categories follows after the jump.

Shhhh...here's some big news about CBS' Ghost Whisperer: it's been picked up by not one, not two, but three different cable networks.

CBS has sold the rights for the Jennifer Love Hewitt, Friday night supernatural drama to the Sci-Fi Channel, WE TV, and ION. I love how the CBS Television Distribution Vice-President says in the article that the show "is about a strong woman who owns her own business and is married to a firefighter, so women relate to that." He left out the part about talking to ghosts. But it should fit in well at the Sci-Fi Channel (ghosts) and WE (strong woman). I have no idea what ION has for programming, but if it's mostly programming about women who own their own small business and talk to ghosts, then they've struck gold with this pick up.

The show sold for $700,000 an episode. Lost is also going to start airing on the Sci-Fi Channel, this fall.

Ahhh, the weekend. A glorious time when the prospect of burning some daylight watching sit-com stars from the 80s rap seems perfectly reasonable. Especially if it's so frickin' cold it's snowing outside. Seriously, why am I getting snowed on in April?

Anyway, one of my friends sent along a link to a post by Benner on a blog called Touch. It features videos of a bunch of old commercials that use rap to try and sell you on one thing or another. You have the classic: D.J. Fred and M.C. Barney for Fruity Pebbles, the strange: Jennifer Love Hewitt in a commercial for bread, and the cringe-worthy: Larry Bird raps for Converse. Finally, there's the awesome: a promo for ABC Wednesday featuring the casts of Perfect Strangers and Head Of The Class. That one is embedded after the jump. Follow the read link for Benner's post and the rest of the videos.

While CBS pulled Bob Barker up from daytime into the prime time spotlight a few times the past few years, they've yet to do so since Drew Carey took over as host of The Price is Right this season. But that's all about to change. For six weeks, starting February 22, CBS is shifting Ghost Whisperer back an hour so they can squeeze in all new episodes of The Price is Right at 8pm/7pm Central. Possibly to avoid double-Drew confusion, The Power of 10, also hosted by Carey, has been pulled from the schedule effective immediately, though it will likely return in the summer.

We've talked a lot here at TV Squad about how Drew is doing on TPiR this year and, while the jury may still be out, I think he's settled into a nice groove. No, he's not Bob Barker but do we really want someone who would go up there and act just like Bob did? They kept all the crazy games that make the show a classic, so I say let Drew be himself, and we'll get used to it. And if you haven't given him a try, here's a chance to curl up at home on a Friday night and see for yourself.