Ghost Whisperer: CBS TV Show Cancelled, No Season Six?

After five seasons on the air, CBS has killed a staple of the Friday night schedule. Ghost Whisperer won’t be back next fall on the Tiffany network. Not unless it can come back from the dead…

Ghost Whisperer tells the tale of Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a young woman with the ability to see and talk to dead people. Regular castmembers over the past five seasons have included David Conrad, Camryn Manheim, Jay Mohr, Aisha Tyler, Christoph Sanders, Jamie Kennedy, and Kenneth Mitchell.

The TV show debuted in September 2005 and the season attracted an average of a 2.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.2 million viewers. In seasons two and three, the demo rose to a 3.0 rating with 9.9 and 8.6 million viewers respectively. For season four, the ratings went up again, to a 3.7 rating and 10.6 million viewers.

Unfortunately this year, the ratings fell — a lot. The season kicked off with a 2.3 rating and 8.7 million viewers. Things went further downhill from there. Last month, they hit a series low with a 1.3 rating in the demo and 5.96 million viewers. Though Ghost Whisperer was once a hit show for the network, those times are clearly over.

To little surprise, CBS has decided to cancel Ghost Whisperer. The series finale is set to air this Friday, May 21st.

However, because ABC Studios co-produces the series (with CBS), there have been discussions that it could switch networks. Medium ran for years on NBC before being cancelled and picked up by CBS.

ABC’s entertainment president, Stephen McPherson, has said that he’d be interested in picking up Ghost Whisperer if the series became available. ABC scheduler Jeff Bader told Variety today that they’ve toyed with the idea. He said, “We talked a lot about it. It could make a good lead-in to Body of Proof.”

To keep costs down, ABC has been committed to running only one scripted series on Friday nights but the execs will supposedly look at the possibility of picking up Ghost Whisperer in the next few days.

What do you think? Should ABC pick up Ghost Whisperer for season six or should it stay cancelled?

Image courtesy CBS.

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