Has Ghost Hunters Jumped the Shark?

Season five of SyFy's Ghost Hunters has come to an end and I think it's time to ask, has it finally jumped the shark?  For that matter can a pseudo-reality show even jump the shark?  I guess the answer to that depends on what your definition of jumping the shark is.

For me, I think it's pretty obvious to tell when a traditional show goes bad.  Original actors start to leave, characters start to become caricatures of themselves, plots go downhill or become non-existent and Ted McGinley joins the cast.  Oh, and usually characters start wearing funny outfits and costumes for cheap laughs.  Really, go back and look at how many shows end up dressing up otherwise serious actors in stupid outfits towards then end of the shows run and you'll likely be able to determine when the writers gave up and the show went downhill.

So can a supposed reality show jump the shark?  Ghost Hunters for instance?  We're not going to see Jason or Grant running around in bunny costumes and they don't technically have writers (though some things are obviously scripted).  For reality shows I think you have to go back and look at how far removed the show is from it's original premise.  Ghost Hunters used to focus a lot on private homes and private individuals with a few commercial venues thrown in.  They also had some fairly obvious scripted tension in the group, disputes among group members, lost equipment, financial issues and so on.  Now?  Not so much.  Most episodes in the last few seasons involve a haunted inn or historical site that undoubtedly has a gift shop just out of view of the cameras.  There isn't any tension in the group either, everyone gets along like long lost relatives at their first family reunion and there's never any logistical or financial concerns built into the show anymore.  Things just go along smoothly and everything works out in the end.  Maybe it really is just that they've worked out the bugs in the show and it's a well oiled machine or maybe they've sold out and don't have time for the petty conflicts that used to make up a portion of the content of the show.

Unfortunately I have to go with the latter answer in no small part because along with the more commercial venues that the Ghost Hunters are investigating now the number of "hauntings" they've found have gone up as well.  It's a little too convenient.  There doesn't seem to be any harm in going to a private individuals home and telling them they don't have ghosts but when you're at a place that needs to sell t-shirts to stay in business not finding evidence of a haunting might harm business.  Places that the Ghost Hunters team has been to and reported haunted have had business shoot up following the visit, it's hard to imagine that there isn't some tacit agreement that Jason and Grant will pronounce the place haunted in advance.  Perhaps there's no formal agreement or paper trail but after following the show for some time it's pretty easy to tell in advance of their investigation which places are going to be haunted and which aren't.

Which brings up another question, is any of their evidence real to begin with?  Obviously the answer is no since they've never actually been able to prove, you know, that ghosts even exist.  The day the Ghost Hunters are able to prove a haunting I'll be happy to give them the benefit of the doubt, until then every noise or shadow that they present as evidence of a ghost has to be taken with a grain of salt.  It seems to me that the correct position for anyone should be to be skeptical without ruling anything out, absence of evidence doesn't equal evidence of absence after all.  Without any scientific proof though (what the Ghost Hunters call scientific is laughably un-scientific) it seems silly to believe in nearly all the paranormal pseudo science on television and on the internet today.  So what Jason and Grant are actually doing is putting on an entertaining show about an interesting topic but with little to no serious content or evidence.

Add it all up and I think we've come to an answer, Ghost Hunters has jumped the shark.  They're far from what they originally set out to do, they've gotten away from their mission of supposing to help people, they've never actually proven anything and what ginned up evidence they do find now seems trite and unimaginative.  At least in the beginning they didn't find spirits everywhere they went and what they did find wasn't always tainted by the fact that someone was trying to make a profit off of their investigation. 

It's too bad really.  I liked Ghost Hunters in the beginning even though I was skeptical of what they were doing.  At least they seemed to be trying.  Now the episodes are easy to predict and the outcomes are largely predetermined.  I guess the only thing left is for Ted McGinley to join the team as an honorary investigator.