Where the Ghost Hunters Team investigated. Image from Flickr.

I rarely admit it, but I’m a bit of a Ghost Hunters junkie. The crew of TAPS can keep my attention just about any time they go out on an investigation. So when I heard that there would be Ghost Hunters Live last night . . . well, let’s just say that I was glad I could get an online cash advance to fund the evening. I got some pizza and sat down to watch TAPS Ghost Hunters live at Alcatraz. What could have been better? Well, quite a few things, it turns out.

TAPS Ghost Hunters “Live” wasn’t really

The Ghost Hunters team has done live investigations in the past, and turned up some pretty amazing evidence. In 2008, they had a seven-hour long live investigation that kept me glued to the screen. A year later, TAPS had a Ghost Hunters event where you could help them ghost-hunt. It’s gone downhill from there – in last night’s “Ghost Hunters Live” show, there wasn’t a single grain of actual live investigation. Instead, the investigation was taped and the live portion was hosted out of the SNL studios.

Ghost Hunters Live – the actually live portion

There were some elements of actual live TV in the Ghost Hunters Live episode last night. The TAPS team (or at least some of them) answered 5 or 6 questions from fans. They also chatted a bit about the investigation before switching over to the more standard, taped-and-edited version of Ghost Hunters. After the investigation, they announced another season of Ghost Hunters Academy (a bit of a non-announcement, since this has been expected for quite a while). I just about turned the TV off, though, when Craig Piligan, who is the CEO of the production company for Ghost Hunters, toasted the “Ghost Hunters Franchise”. Come on Craig, we know it’s a franchise. We know you have made piles of money on Ghost Hunters, and you could practically get unsecured personal loans from anybody. You’re just rubbing salt into the fan’s wound of a non-live “Ghost Hunters Live” show, though.

The Ghost Hunters Investigation itself

Ok, so the TAPS investigation for this episode of Ghost Hunters wasn’t live. Sure, the production company CEO rubbed salt and lemon juice in my fan-girl wounds. However, even I have to admit that as far as Ghost Hunters investigations go, this one was pretty darn cool. Almost every member of the TAPS team had a personal experience of some sort or another. Jason and Grant were able to put their Roto-rooter roots to the test when they found an old sewer line that debunked some paranormal claims. Steve and Tango also lived up to their goofball reputations, complete with a bet about the existence of a schnozberry – although the $25 bet will probably just end up being a personal cash loan.

TAPS uncovers evidence Alcatraz is haunted?

In the end, the Ghost Hunters team did seem to uncover some evidence of “paranormal activity” at Alcatraz. A few very compelling EVP recordings especially gave weight to claims of a haunted prison. It wasn’t the best investigation Ghost Hunters has ever done, but it was enough to at least save SyFy from another angry Ghost Hunters fan letter about the deceptively “Live” advertising for the show.