Monica the Medium

Monica the Medium is an American reality television series about Monica Ten-Kate, a student at Pennsylvania State University who claims to be able to communicate with the dead.[1][2] The show premiered August 25, 2015 on ABC Family.[1] On October 26, 2015 the show got picked up for a second season which premiered on April 25, 2016.[3]

Monica the Medium
GenreReality
StarringMonica Ten-Kate
Krista Gray
Kayla Williams
Kirsten Johnson
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Dave Caplan
  • Malachi McGlone
Production company(s)
DistributorDebmar-Mercury
Release
Original networkFreeform
Original releaseAugust 25, 2015 (2015-08-25) –
June 27, 2016 (2016-06-27)
External links
Website
Part of a series on the
Paranormal

It is the opinion of scientific skeptics that mediumship is a confidence trick, and that what is portrayed in this TV show is no exception.[4][5] After initially publicizing the local show, Onward State published an article, "Psychic Mediums Like Monica Ten-Kate Are Lying Frauds: A Retraction", which provided a detailed critique of the show.[6] Also, Bad Psychics panned the show, stating that "everything about [Monica's] act screams fake", and recommending that people "avoid this pap."[7]

Critical reception

On April 7, 2015, Onward State published a short article "Penn State Medium To Star In ABC Family Reality Show" which promoted the show notifying its readers that "the television series will take place right here in State College." It then described the show saying "The unscripted reality series will follow Ten-Kate as she carries out her daily life as a communications major while juggling her side job as a spirit medium, someone who is able to communicate with those 'who have crossed over.'"[8]

Just a day later, Onward State printed an apology for their first article. It was titled "Psychic Mediums Like Monica Ten-Kate Are Lying Frauds: A Retraction" and said:

As we reported yesterday, Monica Ten-Kate, the 'Penn State Medium,' is indeed getting her own reality show on ABC Family — if nothing else, that much is true. Unfortunately, in trying to provide a relevant piece of news to the Penn State community, we inadvertently promoted one of the most fraudulent, predatory practices around: psychic readings. Our mission statement promises that Onward State will work to generate honest conversation in the hopes of enriching the Penn State community and experience. Yesterday’s article did not do that, and we hope to rectify that. We apologize for the oversight, and are issuing a full retraction of that piece."[6]

The article also stated that:

Psychic mediums and their ilk are one of the most abhorrent cottage industries around. From the loathsome Long Island Medium, to Joel Osteen’s megachurch televangelism profiteering scheme, to John Edward’s cold readings, to Miss Cleo’s pay-per-call deception, the entire industry is built on the shameful idea of profiting off of those who most need solace. Taking advantage of the emotional state of another human being through explicitly deceitful means for your own personal betterment is a vile way to live, let alone make a living. And we’re hardly the first ones to point this out.[6]

On August 27, 2015, the website Bad Psychics, which is devoted to "Exposing Fake Psychics, Mediums and the Paranormal" reviewed the series. It stated that "Despite this being a reality show, it is very clear that she is using various known techniques when giving her readings, reminds me of John Edward and his shotgun techniques ... I am curious as to who trained Monica, as everything about her act screams fake, from her verbiage, to her body language and so on, it seems very trained and not at all natural or self delusional. She is very definitely using cold reading. ABC Family who have commissioned this pile of crap need to take responsibility for giving Monica a platform to build her career. Surely the execs at ABC realize that Monica is not the real deal, the fact she asks so many questions, and controls the readings, not to mention they are editing out all the misses, and keeping all the hits."[7]

In March 2018, skeptical activist Susan Gerbic published an article in Skeptical Inquirer summarizing a number of techniques which she says are used by psychics, such as Ten-Kate, to achieve their effects.[9]

In a 2019 segment of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver criticized the media for producing shows such as this, because they convince viewers that psychic powers are real, and so enable neighborhood psychics to prey on grieving families. Oliver said "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."[10][11][12]

Cast
  • Monica Ten-Kate
  • Krista Gray, Monica's roommate and best friend
  • Kayla Williams, Monica's roommate
  • Kirsten Johnson, Monica's roommate
  • Tyler, Monica's boyfriend

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleOriginal air date [13]US viewers
(millions)
11"Blind Date Surprise"August 25, 2015 (2015-08-25)0.38[14]
22"Spirit at Work"September 1, 2015 (2015-09-01)0.43[15]
33"Spirit Needs an Office"September 8, 2015 (2015-09-08)0.43[16]
44"Junior Slump"September 15, 2015 (2015-09-15)0.41[17]
55"Heaven on Hold"September 22, 2015 (2015-09-22)0.34[18]
66"Bun in the Oven"September 29, 2015 (2015-09-29)0.30[19]
77"Missing Person"October 6, 2015 (2015-10-06)0.41[20]
88"Road Trip"October 13, 2015 (2015-10-13)0.40[21]
99"Finals Week"October 20, 2015 (2015-10-20)0.53[22]
1010"Stay or Go"October 27, 2015 (2015-10-27)0.63[23]

Season 2 (2016)
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleOriginal air date [13]US viewers
(millions)
111"San Diego Bound"April 25, 2016 (2016-04-25)0.33[24]
122"Roommates Wanted"May 2, 2016 (2016-05-02)0.29[25]
133"Housewarming Fiesta"May 9, 2016 (2016-05-09)0.31[26]
144"That's What Friends Aren't For"May 16, 2016 (2016-05-16)0.30[27]
155"A Gift That Keeps on Giving"May 23, 2016 (2016-05-23)0.18[28]
166"There's Something Fishy Going On"May 30, 2016 (2016-05-30)0.37[29]
177"Family Matters"June 6, 2016 (2016-06-06)0.29[30]
188"Muddy Waters"June 13, 2016 (2016-06-13)0.28[31]
199"Hot Fun in the Sun"June 20, 2016 (2016-06-20)0.33[32]
2010"School Spirit"June 27, 2016 (2016-06-27)0.25[33]
gollark: You mean an "unmoderated chat room"?
gollark: I'm joking about the Gopher thing. It's not very practical. Less Googlized standards would be nice but I don't think there's a good way to make that happen.
gollark: Not currently, although it could, Gopher is simple.
gollark: You can always serve your site using Gopher if you don't like it.
gollark: That too.

See also

References
  1. "ABC Family Launches a New Block of Reality Shows Tuesday Nights Beginning August 11". The Futon Critic. July 7, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  2. Littleton, Cynthia (April 1, 2015). "ABC Family Ramps Up Docu-Series Slate with 3 Orders". Variety.
  3. Petski, Denise (October 26, 2015). "'Monica The Medium' Renewed For Season 2 By ABC Family". Deadline. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  4. Propatier, Stephen. "Susan Gerbic: Vampire Slayer". Skeptoid.com. Skeptoid Media. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  5. Swiss, Jamy Ian. "Jamy Ian Swiss - In Pursuit of Psychics: For Good Reason". Youtube.com. James Randi Foundation. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  6. PURCELL, NOEL. "Psychic Mediums Like Monica Ten-Kate Are Lying Frauds: A Retraction". Onwardstate.com. Onward State. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  7. Donnis, Jon. "Monica The Medium - Season 1 Episode 1 Thoughts". Badpsychics.com. Bad Psychics. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  8. LIPPINCOTT, MADDIE. "Penn State Medium To Star In ABC Family Reality Show". Onwardstate.com. Onward State. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  9. Gerbic, Susan. "Ten Tricks of the Psychics I Bet You Didn't Know". CSI. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  10. Horton, Adrian (February 25, 2019). "John Oliver on psychics: 'A vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 25, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  11. Mehta, Hemant (February 25, 2019). "John Oliver Exposed the Media's Complicity in Promoting Psychic "Mediums"". Friendlyatheist.patheos.com. Patheos. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  12. "Psychics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)". Youtube. LastWeekTonight. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  13. "Shows A-Z - monica the medium on abc family". The Futon Critic. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  14. Metcalf, Mitch (September 26, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Originals: 8.25.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  15. Metcalf, Mitch (September 2, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Originals: 9.1.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  16. Metcalf, Mitch (September 9, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Originals: 9.8.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  17. Metcalf, Mitch (September 16, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Originals: 9.15.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
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  21. Metcalf, Mitch (October 14, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 10.13.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  22. Metcalf, Mitch (October 21, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Ratings (& Network Update): 10.20.2015". SHOWBUZZDAILY. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  23. Metcalf, Mitch (October 28, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Tuesday Cable Ratings (& Network Update): 10.27.2015". SHOWBUZZDAILY. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  24. Metcalf, Mitch (April 26, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 4.25.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  25. Metcalf, Mitch (May 3, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 5.2.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  26. Metcalf, Mitch (May 10, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 5.9.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  27. Metcalf, Mitch (May 17, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 5.16.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  28. Metcalf, Mitch (May 24, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 5.23.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  29. Metcalf, Mitch (June 1, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 5.30.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  30. Metcalf, Mitch (June 7, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 6.6.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  31. Metcalf, Mitch (June 14, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 6.13.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  32. Metcalf, Mitch (June 21, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 6.20.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  33. Metcalf, Mitch (June 28, 2016). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Monday Cable Originals: 6.27.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
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