'Ghost Brothers' moves back to Destination America April 21 after brief stay at TLC

ajc.com

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

This was originally posted on Friday, March 10, 2017, updated April 5 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

Destination America's "Ghost Brothers" did so well season one, it has been moved to much larger sister station TLC starting March 10 on Friday night, once home to wedding shows on that network.

UPDATE on April 5: I guess the experiment didn't work. Destination America gets the show back starting April 21 after a two-week hiatus. 

Two of the three "Ghost Brothers" live in Atlanta: Juwan Mass and "barber to the stars" Marcus Harvey. The third, Dalen Spratt, graduated Clark Atlanta University. They are all best friends but not brothers in a literal sense.

For those of you who missed it on Destination America, the concept is simple: three friends visit sites that are thought to have plenty of paranormal activity. They try to contact the dead. And  they freak out like regular folks, not trying to pretend they are truly cool with this. They also provide dollops of humor to a genre that is often fraught with super-serious ghost hunters.

Similar to truTV's "Impractical Jokers," it's the chemistry among the dudes that matters as much if not more than the concept.

The guys insist, jokes aside, that they take ghost hunting seriously. They are simply curious people willing to satiate said curiosity in dark places, often in the middle of the night. And better yet: they get paid for it!

Juwan and Dalen, in a combo interview, said social media feedback from season one was mostly positive and the criticism was reasonable. "They wish we would use more equipment," Juwan said. "Or they'd hope we wouldn't get scared so often. Hey, you'd be scared too! But I think we really did hit on something."

Season two will feature more equipment but the fear remains. "I thought I'd be more numb to it," Juwan said. "Nope! I'm still running out of locations yelling at Dalen, grabbing Marcus."

Dalen: "I guess the best way to put it in the words of Chris Rock: 'Bigger and blacker!' That's what season two is."

The trio requested they wanted season two to feature at least one on the beach and they got their wish: Montego Bay. "It turned out to be one of our best episodes," Juwan said.

Fame has definitely shifted their social lives. "It's made it more interesting," Dalen said. "The conversations used to start with what your interests are. Now they ask, 'What's the craziest thing you ever did? Tell me a ghost story!' "

Dalen said ghosts were "friskier." "There seemed to be more flirtation in some of our investigations," he said. "In San Jose, a ghost made it clear she wanted Juwan."

"I don't know if it's our humor or our good looks but it's working for us," Juwan said.

He said ghosts are sometimes angry, sometimes pranksters. "Ghosts can be extremely petty," Juwan said. "They're bitter. Some are aggressive. They push people, pull hair."

Dalen is surprised ghosts tend to stick around familiar places. He said as a ghost, he'd be far more adventurous.

The show's eight episodes hit Louisiana and Tennessee but not Georgia this season. They coincidentally landed in Marcus' hometown in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Marcus, Dalen said, always bragged he was "the man" in that town. Apparently, it was true. "We were there to see it," he said. "He wasn't lying! He had a lot of love and respect in that town."

TV PREVIEW

"Ghost Brothers," 9 p.m. season two debut, March 10 on TLC

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