Spooky and creepy experiences are now overtaking genre fans, in honor of Halloween. Surprises are awaiting supernatural enthusiasts during this month’s new docuseries, ‘Ghost Nation,’ which follows some of their favorite paranormal experts. The anticipated reality show’s first season is set to premiere tonight at 10pm ET/PT on Travel Channel.
With the cable network in the midst of Ghostober, their signature month-long Halloween programing that’s dedicated to horror fans’ favorite season, the channel is taking viewers on a fun, spine-tingling journey across America with its latest paranormal series. Paranormal investigators Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango, who previously worked together on Syfy’s hit supernatural reality show, ‘Ghost Hunters,’ are reuniting to host ‘Ghost Nation.’
‘Ghost Nation’ follows the legendary investigators as they team up with local investigators nationwide to help people whose lives have been overtaken by unexplained phenomena. Hawes, Gonsalves and Tango respond to calls from investigators who need help with their cases in exploring reportedly haunted locations, primarily private residences, across the United States.
Tonight’s episode, which is titled ‘The Boys are Back,’ is set in a private home in White Pine, Tennessee. It follows an amateur paranormal investigator who calls on the team to help her with a case she can’t crack. The team uncovers the haunted house has a dark past, including a murder on the property.
Hawes, Gonsalves and Tango generously took the time to participate in a press conference interview last weekend at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center during New York Comic Con 2019 to talk about the show’s first season. Among other things, the paranormal investigators discussed how they choose cases that are brought to them by other investigators who they’ve previously worked with, and are set in a private residence, because they feel the need to help families.
The interview began with Hawes explaining how their work on ‘Ghost Nation’ differs from their previous investigations on ‘Ghost Hunters,’ and that their new in-depth antics may help skeptics start to believe in their work. “In the past, we did more preliminary investigations. But with this show, you can see the investigation from the beginning through the resolution. We’re also showing that if we say a house is haunted, nothing’s going on scientifically. So I think skeptics can enjoy this show, just as much as believers,” he shared.
“We don’t have an agenda, though. We don’t care whether or not people believe what we’re doing; we’re just after the truth,” Gonsalves also chimed in. “80 percent of all hauntings can be disproved, so there’s a pretty skeptical outlook on things already, going into an investigation. People should be skeptical of what we’re doing, but we’re still putting our evidence in front of people and saying, ‘Look at this. You can see it for yourself, so come along for the adventure.’ We’re not too afraid of skeptics.”
The trio was then asked how they decide which cases they should pursue for ‘Ghost Nation.’ “Our website gets thousands of cases a day, and millions of visitors a year,” Hawes revealed. “So the cases we get are being brought to us by other investigators who we’ve dealt with over the years. You’re going to notice that every single case we go to is being investigated by people we know, and is in our network.
“Every single case is also set in a private residence. There’s no reason for us to go spend time in a big, haunted building in the middle of nowhere, if we’re not going to help people. We’re going in and helping out families, especially the children,” the investigator continued.
“You’re going to see in the first episode that we end up in a house in Tennessee, where the family is afraid to even go in the yard. There’s always going to be something there, but by the time we were done, there was a resolution, and they’re back in the house. We’re still in contact with them,” Gonsalves also divulged.
The television hosts were then further asked why they were interested in helping smaller, local investigators on the Travel Channel series. “If we have questions, we can call scientists and historians to do a deep dive into the science and history into the cases. But these other teams don’t necessarily have the resources to do that,” Gonsalves explained. “So we can go out and help these other teams.”
“We were working together long before the television shows. So we’re not just about being on a big show; this is what we’ve always done,” Tango also pointed out. “I think that people really respond to the way we work.”
“We weren’t just cast to work together on the television show,” Gonsalves added. “We took a few years off between the two shows, but we’re back, stronger than ever.”