When a person dies, it can be hard for their loved ones to let go. So to seek closure, they might consult a spirit medium who reputedly communicates with the dead. While there is skepticism about this practice, it has shamanic origins and was popularized in the nineteenth century.
Today, spirit mediums remain popular, as reality shows like TLC’s Long Island Medium have brought them into the limelight. Centered around Theresa Caputo, who does readings for different people, she’s not the only spirit medium who has their own show. In fact, here’s some other series that Long Island Medium fans might enjoy.
Monica the Medium
Championing themselves as the television providers for a teenage demographic, Freeform decided to do their own take on the spirit medium sub-genre of reality shows with Monica the Medium. Premiering in 2016, the show is hosted by Monica Ten-Kate, who attends college while also being a spirit medium.
She also has her own YouTube channel, which was created one year after her show premiered. Like Theresa on Long Island Medium, Monica’s intention is to help clients find closure with their departed loved ones using her self-proclaimed gift. This in turn has led to criticism from skeptics, but that shouldn’t prevent viewers from watching the show if they would like to see what a younger spirit medium is like.
Hollywood Medium
When it comes to channeling spirits, mediums will use different methods to supposedly make this happen. One particular method is touching an object that belonged to the departed, which is what spirit medium Tyler Henry does on his reality show Hollywood Medium.
As the title implies, Tyler lives in Los Angeles, which in turn has led many celebrities to seek him out. Additionally, his show is broadcasted on the E! Network, which typically focuses on Hollywood stars and the like. He even made his first appearance on one of their other reality shows, Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Princesses: Long Island
For those who feel like Long Island Medium could’ve used a more drama and less psychic elements, then Princesses: Long Island is just the right kind of show. Set in the Long Island area, it focuses on the lives of six young women in their late 20s.
All from Jewish families and part of the Boomerang Generation, these women hope to find the right guy so they can get married and move out of their families’ homes. Originally premiering on the Bravo network, it ran for one season in 2013.
Psychic Kids
Though plenty of fictional children with psychic abilities have appeared in movies and television for decades, there are supposedly real-life ones out there too. At least, that’s what the A&E Network reality show Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal claims. The show has received mixed criticism overall.
Starring Chip Coffey of Paranormal State fame, he visits children who are supposedly psychic and helps them come to terms with their abilities. Accompanying him is a licensed therapist named Edy Nathan, a spirit medium named Kim Russo, and Chris Fleming, who’s a famous public speaker on the paranormal as well as psychic phenomena.
Mama Medium
Following the success of Long Island Medium, TLC decided to create a similar reality show last year titled Mama Medium. Set in Rochester, New York instead of Long Island, the spirit medium that’s focused on this time is Jennie Marie.
Apart from communicating with the dead, Jennie claims to also have empathic abilities that allow her to speak to non-verbal people, such as those who are paralyzed. Though what sets this show apart from Long Island Medium is that it not only focuses on Jennie’s readings with different clients, but also her own personal life. Yet like other shows of this nature, it too has received its share of criticism from skeptics.
Medium
Unlike the other shows discussed in the article thus far, this series is fictional. However, it is roughly based on the supposed real-life experiences of a spirit medium named Allison DuBois.
Set in Phoenix, Arizona, Medium is about Allison (played by Patricia Arquette), who interns for the district attorney of a fictional county while using her psychic abilities to help law enforcement solve crimes. She also has three daughters who share the same powers as she does, and a husband. Originally broadcasted on NBC, and then later CBS, the show ran for seven seasons total in the mid-to-late 2000s.
Seatbelt Psychic
When taking a ride with an Uber driver or someone from a similar service, nothing extraordinary tends to happens. But what if one of these drivers turned out to be psychic? Then you get Seatbelt Psychic, a Lifetime show that has this exact premise.
Featuring Thomas John, who is a self-proclaimed spirit medium with celebrity clients, the show has him pick up passengers as part of his current ride-sharing job and do readings for them on the fly. Currently, the series has one season under its belt, with the possibility of a second season uncertain.
Celebrity Ghost Stories
Depending on one’s mood, a good ghost story can be very entertaining regardless if it’s real or not. In fact, the A&E Network decided to up this premise further by having celebrities talk about ghost-related experiences in the reality show aptly titled Celebrity Ghost Stories.
The way it works is that while the celebrity tells the story, the show will occasionally cut to dramatic reenactments of the experience with spooky musical accompaniment. With five seasons total, there is currently a spin-off called The Haunting Of, and plans for a sixth season to be released in the fall of this year.
Paranormal Lockdown
While many ghost-hunting shows have the investigators spend at least one night at a haunted location, TLC’s Paranormal Lockdown increases the time to three days. In that time, paranormal investigator Nick Groff and researcher Katrina Weidman, another participant on the reality show Paranormal State, use various equipment to study the possible ghosts in the location they’re in.
Premiering in 2016, the show ran for three seasons before being cancelled. This was in spite of the show’s popularity, making the cancellation somewhat baffling. Though according to Higgypop, Paranormal Lockdown may have been canned due to show politics.
Long Lost Family
Regardless if they’re deceased or not, a missing relative can feel like a ghost to those who remember them. Plus, finding them can be tricky depending on the circumstances, and even expensive when it comes to procedures like DNA Testing.
Fortunately, depending on how one views it, there are reality shows like TLC’s Long Lost Family that supposedly help in this matter. Based on the British show of the same name, it involves experts offering assistance to selected people who’ve been trying to find long-lost relatives for possibly several years. Hosted by television personalities Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner, this show currently has three seasons.
