Travel Channel Announces Third Annual Ghostober Event

If you’re afraid sticky-fingered children will invade your social distancing to get at your favorite candy, lock the doors and tune into “Ghostober.” Halloween rules again all month long on Travel Channel. Its third annual paranormal programming event takes viewers on “spine-chilling adventures to the other side – where tales of poltergeists, ghostly creatures, demons and even a few legends will keep you company,” according to their press statement.

Travel Channel’s “Ghostober” begins Sept. 27 and runs until Halloween. “Halloween is Travel Channel’s Superbowl, and with more people at home than ever before, we plan to deliver an over-the-top slate of original programming,” Matthew Butler, general manager of Travel Channel, said in a statement.

“Ghostober” has thrills and chills on lockdown. Paranormal programming will be scheduled throughout October, culminating with the top 20 of the world’s spookiest unexplained videos. “7 Nights of Fright” starts on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 9 p.m. with the two-hour countdown “Paranormal Caught on Camera: Top 100.” Leading up to the month, Paranormal Caught on Camera will be “counting down the top 100 paranormal encounters of all time,” according to the advance press. “This eye-opening compilation features the most compelling evidence, expert analysis and eyewitness accounts ever documented including: Bigfoot, UFOs, aliens, poltergeists, ghosts and a whole lot more. Seeing is believing.” The countdown begins September 27.

New episodes of Ghost Nation premiere Saturday, October 17 at 9 p.m. “The locations have bigger mysteries, are more chilling and have never been investigated on television,” reads the official synopsis. The paranormal team of Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango call in “an old friend for some help – paranormal investigator Shari DeBenedetti,” according to the synopsis. “With the help of their local contacts, they embed themselves in the community, conducting multi-day investigations in an effort to track down the true source of hauntings and restore peace to the living. They’ll do whatever it takes to entice the ghost into telling its story and stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the paranormal phenomena.”

Paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Jay Wasley and Billy Tolley open up to viewers when Ghost Adventures: Screaming Room airs new episodes every Thursday at 9 p.m. “The guys are kicking back in their screening room to watch their favorite episodes of the hit series and get candid with fans – and each other – about their craziest experiences over the past decade,” according to the synopsis. “Away from the haunted locations we usually see them in, with no equipment or investigations, the crew relives some of the most terrifying, shocking and even comedic moments from their career.”

“Ghostober” will also include new Shock Docs. The first, Amityville Horror House, premieres Monday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. The book The Amityville Horror was published in 1977 and caused a sensation. The 1979 film adaptation was a surprise box office hit. “Today, it is the quintessential American horror story based on true events – family moves into their dream house in an all-American town and experiences the most terrifying demonic haunting imaginable,” according to the official synopsis. “Demon possession, demon attacks, a portal to hell – it was a situation so dire, even the church couldn’t help them.” The special presents the harrowing true story of Ronald DeFeo, who murdering his entire family in the Amityville house, and the 28 days the Lutz family lived there. It includes archival footage, re-creations, and rare, archival interview with George Lutz, describing the final night in the Amityville house.

The Exorcism of Roland Doe debuts on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. “In 1973, The Exorcist shocked moviegoers,” reads the official synopsis. “Overnight, the sinister presence of satanic evil seemed frighteningly real for millions of Americans. Archival footage shows audience members frightened out of their wits – and literally out of their seats. Some in the audience ran out of the theatre; others got physically ill or couldn’t sleep for weeks.” The special uses rare archival footage to showcase the cultural impact of the film and explore the true story of Roland Doe, the possessed boy who inspired the book The Exorcist. Also, an investigator will expose a shocking secret and possible cover-up in the real-life exorcist case.

“Shock Docs” continues with the tell-all holiday special This is Halloween, premiering Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m. “Halloween is a time to indulge our darkest fears and live out our wildest fantasies,” reads the official synopsis. “For those who like the spooky side of life, it’s become a yearly event.” In the two-hour Shock Docs installment, This is Halloween, Travel Channel’s paranormal experts share their best Halloween stories in a nostalgic look back at everyone’s favorite haunted holiday. “From creepy costumes to the scariest pranks they’ve ever pulled, it’s a sweet and spooky trip down memory lane,” promises the advance press.

Ghost Adventures: Horror at Joe Exotic Zoo premieres Thursday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m. In the two-hour special, Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures crew go inside the infamous Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park to investigate “sinister accounts of ghostly activity,” according to the synopsis. In this two-hour special,  the team examines claims of “tortured spirits believed to lurk in the shadows of a park tainted by tragic events like deadly fires and accidental shootings,” the synopsis reads. “Could these incidents have opened a mysterious portal to the other side? The team is prepared to confront these dark spirits as they attempt to gather evidence as to who, or what, is haunting this park.”

The special will be followed by the reopening of famed ghost hunter Hans Holzer’s original case files in the season 2 return of The Holzer Files, which airs at 11 p.m. The show returns with all-new investigations from the trail of John Wilkes Booth in Maryland to a serial killer in Ohio. Led by investigator Dave Schrader, psychic medium Cindy Kaza and equipment technician Shane Pittman, the series investigates terrifying true hauntings from the recently discovered case files of America’s first ghost hunter, Dr. Hans Holzer.

Recognized as the “father of the paranormal,” Holzer’s legendary four-decade exploration into hauntings like the Amityville Horror house helped spawn a generation of supernatural enthusiasts, including Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who were inspired to write Ghostbusters. Holzer’s daughter, Alexandra Holzer, helps Travel Channel reopen her father’s most captivating case files – “digging into thousands of documents, letters, photographs and chilling audio and visual recordings dating back to the 1950s,” according to the official synopsis.

In the sneak peek of the new season of Portals to Hell, which premieres Friday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m., Katrina Weidman and Jack Osbourne investigate Captain Grant’s Inn.  The Inn was built in 1754, “might just be the most haunted place in all of Connecticut,” according to the press statement. Carol, the current owner, claims that shortly after she purchased the property in 1986, she was taken over by an evil spirit. She conducted an exorcism to eliminate the angry spirit. “For 10 years following the exorcism, the paranormal experiences were mild, but soon Carol and her guests started to experience an uptick in ghostly activity.” Carol claims she cataloged over 300 spirits haunting the property. 

The Portals to Hell duo “seek to discover if these are historical hauntings or if there is something more sinister at play. In a risky attempt to get answers, the duo asks Carol to join the night investigation for an unprecedented experiment that leaves the entire team speechless.”

It will be followed by a special two-hour Osbourne family holiday treat, The Osbournes: Night of Terror. “Adamant on truly living up to their position as America’s first family of darkness,” Jack Osbourne takes Ozzy, Sharon and Kelly on their first-ever paranormal investigation: Los Angeles’ historical Heritage Square, a collection of active haunted houses believed to be the area’s most haunted hotspot. The collection has never been investigated for TV.  “Not only are they going to hunt ghosts together … but they’re going to love it,” promises the advance press. “As Jack and Kelly go deep into the night to investigate prolific spirit activity, Ozzy and Sharon monitor the action from basecamp. Terrifying encounters aside – of which there are plenty – in true Osbourne fashion, there’s a never a dull moment. With Kelly and Jack on the front lines of the investigation confronting unexplained disturbances, skeptics Ozzy and Sharon provide lively feedback and guidance hoping to mitigate the paranormal danger their kids are sure to face.” The Osbournes: Night of Terror premieres at 9 p.m.

Travel Channel wraps up “Ghostober” on Halloween night. The will feature a series crossover featuring ghost-hunting teams from the series Ghost Nation and Kindred Spirits. The paranormal investigators Ghost Nation – Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango – reunite with Amy Bruni and Adam Berry of Kindred Spirits for the first time in nearly a decade to investigate a Newport, Rhode Island, mansion. “Seaview Terrace is the 40,000-square-foot Rhode Island mansion famous for being featured on the TV show Dark Shadows, but the owners were shocked to find out that a recent visitor – a self-proclaimed warlock – had performed some sort of blasphemous ceremony in the house,” reads the official synopsis. “Now, they’re experiencing a shift in the mansion’s energy, unleashing something more menacing. The team scours 100 years of history to discover a notoriously patchwork past, filled with lavish high society parties and possibly a scandalous murder. Ghost Nation: Reunion in Hell premieres Saturday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m.

“Ghostober” ends with a new episode of Destination Fear, which airs Oct. 31 at 10 p.m. The team will spend a terrifying night inside the abandoned Old Crow Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. The series’ new season premieres Saturday, October 24 at 10 p.m. Destination Fear is “a haunted road trip turned terrifying sleepover,” according to the official synopsis. “Brother and sister duo, Dakota Laden and Chelsea Laden, and best friend Tanner Wiseman, along with camera operator Alex Schroeder, confront their fears, as they pile into their RV and hit the road on a nail-biting cross-country journey to pursue paranormal evidence, spending the night inside America’s most haunted abandoned buildings.”

In the premiere Destination Fear episode, Dakota leads Chelsea, Tanner and Alex to Saratoga County Homestead Hospital, a “decaying sanitarium in upstate New York, where some patient corpses were unclaimed due to a flu pandemic,” according to the advance press. “Screams and darting shadows play mind games with the team as they struggle to pin the activity on the living or the dead.”