TLC show facilitates heartwarming family reunions
Lost and found: Losing touch with a loved one can be devastating, even more so if the separation is never explained. One prime-time reality series has already helped many families reunite, and the heartwarming stories continue in season 2.
Hosts Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner, both of whom were adopted, guide participants as they search for birth parents, siblings and children in the hopes of finally making a connection in a new episode of “Long Lost Family,” airing Sunday, March 26, on TLC. Based on the popular British series of the same name, “Long Lost Family” invites viewers to witness the emotional journeys the family members experience while searching for their loved ones.
Each episode traces two different stories as Jacobs and Joyner help people from a variety of backgrounds investigate the mysteries behind their heartbreaking separations.The goal is to provide each with answers to burning questions about their pasts, and to find what they’ve been looking for for years. While not every story has a happy ending, the series offers lots of emotional ups and downs.
This season, the show gets help once again from genealogy company Ancestry.com, which provides DNA testing as well as family history research. Cameras follow every step of the way as participants tell their stories, delve into their pasts and, hopefully, meet their missing loved ones. This season’s stories include a woman searching for the younger sister from whom she was separated when she was still a teenager, a woman looking for both her birth mother and the daughter she placed up for adoption and a man hoping to find his older brother.
Who you gonna call?: Paranormal television is having a moment. Often dismissed as tall tales, stories of paranormal activity may not be taken seriously by traditional authorities, but there are plenty of people out there who are willing to take a closer look, and — luckily for TV viewers — they have cameras.
The latest stars of the genre are friends Dalen Spratt, Juwan Mass and Marcus Harvey, paranormal enthusiasts who investigate hauntings in “The Ghost Brothers.” You can catch a new episode of the series Friday, March 31, on TLC. Now in its second season, the show follows the charming ghost hunters to legendary haunted locations where they attempt to find evidence of the spirit world.
A cheeky promo for the new season shows entertaining footage of the guys as they search for answers about alleged paranormal activity. While the series might seem lighthearted, the Ghost Brothers are serious in their quest, explaining: “Our mission is to hit the most haunted locations in America to prove that ghosts are for real.”
Despite being raised in religious households that discouraged such investigations, Spratt, Mass and Harvey were inspired by their own unexplained experiences to explore the supernatural. Each week, they enlist the help of local historians and caretakers who provide them with a history of various sites. At night, specialized camera equipment captures their antics as they use investigative devices, so-called “trigger objects” and other means to try to make contact with ghosts.
In this week’s episode, the guys travel to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit the allegedly haunted Old City Jail, where they look for evidence of apparitions and physical attacks reportedly connected to the country’s first known female serial killer, Lavinia Fisher, a former inmate. They also explore the Magnolia Hotel in a new episode of “The Ghost Brothers,” airing Friday, March 31, on TLC.
No place like home: Country music stars may have millions of fans, but many of them never forget where they came from, and CMT shines the spotlight on three modern country music icons as they make a difference in their hometowns.
Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker and Brett Eldredge trek back to their old stomping grounds in the premiere special “Hometown Heroes,” airing Friday, March 31, on CMT. They not only perform for their loyal hometown crowds, they also give back to the communities where they made those first tentative steps towards stardom.
In association with Ram Nation and the truck brand’s network of volunteers, each performer returns home and pitches in to make the town a better place. Grammy winner Stapleton travels to Paintsville, Kentucky, to provide new band instruments to his high school alma mater. Also, volunteers construct an outdoor stage to serve as a venue for the students, and Stapleton performs.
Cameras also follow fellow Grammy winner Rucker, who revisits MUSC Children’s Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, where he spent much of his time alongside his mother, a nurse. Ram Nation volunteers help Rucker remodel a room for teens at the hospital before he performs for patients and staff.
Eldredge, a former CMA New Artist of the Year (2014), has big plans to refurbish Laker Stadium in his small hometown of Paris, Illinois. He breathes new life into the baseball fields near where he grew up before putting on a show in the high school gymnasium.