NEW YORK – August 21, 2008 – An investigation at the castle allegedly haunted by the spirit of “Vlad the Impaler,” the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, capped off a stellar summer season of SCI FI’s hit reality series Ghost Hunters International. Airing Wednesday evening at 9 PM ET/PT, the episode concluded a successful summer run that has averaged a 1.7 Household rating, 1.3 million Adults 18-49, 1.4 million Adults 25-54 and 2.3 million total viewers, up +9% from the show’s 2008 winter season.

Ghost Hunters International has continued to cement the Ghost Hunters brand as the top paranormal franchise in cable since its January debut, outperforming other recently-launched paranormal cable series by a significant margin in total viewers, including, Lifetime’s America’s Psychic Challenge (+78%) and A&E’s Psychic Kids (+60%) and Paranormal State (+39%).

A spin-off of SCI FI’s popular Ghost Hunters series, Ghost Hunters International features a squad of real-life “ghost-busters” - ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of otherworldly activity. The team travels to different international cities each week in pursuit of the truth behind bizarre supernatural claims. New episodes of Ghost Hunters International will debut on SCI FI in 2009.

Season 4 of the original Ghost Hunters, featuring lead investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, will return with new episodes on September 3 at 9 PM with a case at Iron Island Museum in Buffalo, NY. Then, at 10 PM, Destination Truth, featuring world-adventurer Josh Gates, premieres new episodes with investigations in Australia and Malaysia. It all leads up to the 3rd annual Ghost Hunters Live special on Halloween night, airing from 7pm-2am at the historic Fort Delaware.

Source: NBC