Ghosts

From the desk

Why Ghosts still plays

Filed by Rex Fontaine · Golden Age Dispatch

A couple inherits a country estate packed with ghosts only one of them can see, which is an older haunted-house night than streaming will copyright. Joe Port and Joe Wiseman's CBS sitcom, 2021 onward, makes Rose McIver's Samantha and Utkarsh Ambudkar's Jay hosts to a Viking, a twenties singer, a scoutmaster, and a mansion ensemble including Brandon Scott Jones's Captain Isaac and Danielle Pinnock's Alberta. U.S. remake of a haunted-house multi-cam that became a quiet ratings and affection hit. Lovability as structure — not a brand note. Network comedy that suddenly felt easy again. Ninety-four episodes, five seasons, still on.

*Ghosts* proved a broadcast remake can become the thing you actually quote at Thanksgiving. *Which ghost are you* quizzes and ensemble warmth did the cultural work prestige half-hours sometimes forget. **The historical claim that corrects the room:** multi-cam ease is not a vending-machine leftover. It is a living-room America that still chooses a mansion on CBS. The streaming desk will call it inventory. Rex will call it the network night remembering how. Fantasy sitcom that treats kindness as timing.

What the night looks like: the pilot as Thanksgiving-quote contract, U.S. remake that became the thing you cite, living couple stuck hosting a century of punchlines; *Spies* as season-two launch, dead-letter intelligence, still Viking-and-flapper math, still proof a remake can out-quote the pitch meeting; *The Owl* as season-three bird, multi-cam still finding new mansion business, still lovability over mean; *Patience* as season-four virtue, the titled wait, still scoutmaster energy, still a living couple hosting ghosts like a sitcom that remembered how; *Across the Pond* as latest listed hour, title nodding at the British original, CBS lovability still the sport, still a haunted sitcom you can air at dinner.

You do not need the BBC *Ghosts* first. This is the U.S. remake that became the quote-at-Thanksgiving version for many viewers. Start at the inheritance premiere. Meeting the ghosts is the format; later seasons deepen which spirit you quote, not a mystery box. Scary or sitcom? Fantasy sitcom. Haunted mansion as multi-cam workplace for the dead and the living couple stuck hosting them. Warm, not horror. Still on, 2021 onward — a quiet ratings and affection hit, not a limited ghost story with an ending date.

A toast to a remake that earned the quotes. A raised eyebrow for binge culture that cannot admit a CBS mansion is also the 2020s. Patterns are old: burying a show, hyping a prestige half-hour, pretending broadcast died. *Ghosts* kept the lights on. Raise the glass to McIver and Ambudkar hosting the century. Then the deflating detail — you will still take a quiz about which ghost you are, which is affection, and also the oldest sitcom trick in the house.

Episode guide

How this series is filed

TV Flash files Ghosts (2021–) on CBS as the episode guide: 94 listed hours across 5 seasons, 2021-10-07–2026-05-21 from “Pilot” (S01E01) to “Across the Pond” (S05E22).

Open the episode guide · S01E01 Pilot · S05E22 Across the Pond