Paranormal State - Production Background

Production Background

The show is produced by Four Seasons Productions International and Go Go Luckey Productions (which produced MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County, and A&E's now-cancelled Rollergirls). Gary Auerbach and Julie Auerbach (who head Go Go Luckey Productions) and Betsy Schechter (Four Seasons) are the executive producers.

The show was tentatively titled "Out There", "Dead Time" and "Paranormal U" before being called "Paranormal State."

Every episode of the show is outlined by the production team first, co-executive producer Tina Gazzerro has stated, to ensure that a producible episode will result. "We try to identify where we get our discovery moments, our 'Ah-ha!' moments", Gazzerro told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Information about the event under investigation may also be held back from the students in order to create dramatic tension, and only situations which will have a conclusive outcome are investigated. "We may have information we don't give to ", Gazzerro said, "but we need to make sure produceable." Story arcs are also outlined for each "character" on the show, and the production team has publicly expressed its hope that a romantic relationship will develop between the research team leader Ryan Buell and one of the women on the series. The production team and the show's researchers say that no pressure is put on the research team to act in certain ways or make paranormal discoveries.

A&E had high hopes for the new series. Cable television reality shows about the paranormal require only about a quarter of the budget of a scripted show of the same length. They also draw much-coveted younger viewers, and lean slightly more female than male (a difficult demographic to draw for most cable networks not explicitly targeting women)

Fourteen half-hour episodes were ordered for the first season. A&E upped that order to 20 shows after seeing the pilot and the first few episodes. Had the show not been picked up by A&E, Buell said he had another series deal in the works with the Auerbachs and their production company.

The show was initially scheduled to debut in May or June 2007, but was pushed back to December 2007 (although no reasons were reported).

The show debuted on December 10, 2007, with 2.5 million viewers watching the first two back-to-back episodes, making it the third-most watched show on A&E since 2004. The cable network reported that this included 1.6 million people aged 18 to 49 (a highly coveted demographic by broadcasters and advertisers). It also included 1.5 million viewers in the 25-to-54 age range, A&E's target demographic. The show's second season began on July 28, 2008 on A&E; its third season, on January 19, 2009 on the same channel. The fourth season premiered on December 15, 2009 on A&E, and the DVD release for this season is scheduled for September 28, 2010.

On May 4, 2010, A&E confirmed that Paranormal State was renewed for a fifth season for a total of 20 episodes.

On July 27, 2010, A&E Home Video released a 2-DVD set featuring 12 episodes from season two entitled Paranormal State: The Complete Season Two.

On January 6, 2011, Ryan revealed on his personal blog that Paranormal State will, in fact, be ending for the members to pursue other things.

As of recent, Paranormal State is airing new episodes.