Here's Why Jennifer Love Hewitt's 'The Ghost Whisperer' Was Canceled
After playing Sarah on Party Of Five and starring in a well-known horror movie (and its sequel), Jennifer Love Hewitt has had a very successful time in Hollywood. Fans aren't sure about the Amazon TV adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer as the original is an enjoyable campy classic and it can be tough to recapture that magic.
Hewitt has appeared in many TV shows and movies, and one of her longest parts was playing Melinda on the supernatural series Ghost Whisperer. The TV show aired for five seasons from 2005 until 2010 and then it was canceled. It's always really tough when a show goes off the air, for the fans and the cast and crew.
Let's take a look at why this TV series was canceled.
Time To Say Goodbye
There are some ways to tell that a TV show will go off the air, and other times, it's a big surprise to everyone.
Ghost Whisperer was canceled because of ratings. According to Digital Spy, Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment's president, said it wasn't an easy choice to make.
Tassler explained to E Online, "It's sad, but shows don't stay on the air forever. It was surprising to us, too. If we didn't have the strength coming out of the development season, we might not have had the opportunity to do it.
Tassler continued that ratings matter: she said, "Ultimately, it's all about ratings for the network - that's where we have to continue to improve and succeed. It was personally very tough - Love is a friend, the producers are friends, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is someone who's done very well for us."
Deadline reported that there was talk that ABC could have picked up the show after it was canceled, but that didn't end up happening. The publication said that CBS Studios and ABC Studios were 50/50 owners of the show.
According to TV Series Finale, Jennifer Love Hewitt filmed a tour of the TV set for any viewers who wanted some closure on the series. She said, “It was an amazing five years. I can not thank you guys enough, from the bottom of my heart — for being so incredibly gracious, for being so loving, for being so accepting of Melinda and all of her craziness, all of her ghosts all of her nightmares, and all of her unfinished business.”
Hewitt also said that the fan excitement for the show "meant everything" to those working on it, which is really sweet.
Hewitt shared that she wasn't happy with the series finale. According to Fame 10, she said, “I didn’t feel the series ended the way that [Melinda] deserved for it to. We left the audience sort of hanging, and I hate that. When you’ve taken people on a journey for so long, the least you can do is give them a goodbye. For a show that was about unfinished business, we didn’t get to finish."
The Spooky Story
Jennifer Love Hewitt played Melinda Gordon, a Grandview, New York resident who seems to live a totally normal life. She's married to Jim, a firefighter, and paramedic, until his tragic death. She also has a store where she sells antiques with Andrea, her good friend.
The only different thing about Melinda? She can talk to dead people and see them, too.
The series follows the formula of Melinda meeting new ghosts in each episode, learning their story, and helping them out. This definitely seems like something that could have continued for even ten seasons, since there would always be new tales to tell, especially since there was always the big question of who in Melinda's life knew about her gift. But it makes sense that if a show has low ratings, it can't last.
According to Fame 10, there is a woman named Mary Ann Winkowski who talks to ghosts, and she was a consultant on the show for a period of time. The series is loosely inspired by her.
Before the show went off the air, Hewitt shared that the budget was decreased. According to Fame 10, she said, "We are a special effects show, so some of our special effects stuff has had to be cut in half. We haven’t been able to do any actor raises for season five. We’ve had to cut budgets here and there. They have also been talking about actually shooting our show in HD to save money."
While it's always tough for fans of a long-running TV series to learn that it was canceled, at least there are always episodes to turn back to when the mood strikes. Fans of Ghost Whisperer will always have those five seasons to be entertained by.
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