5 Years Ago Today: CBS Premiered One Of Its Biggest Comedies

It's hard to believe that "Ghosts" is already five years old. The hit CBS show debuted on this day in 2021, introducing viewers to married New Yorkers Sam and Jay (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar), who think they've hit the jackpot when they inherit a huge country house from Sam's great aunt. They soon find out it's a fixer-upper, and to make matters far worse it's haunted by the ghosts of all the people who have died on the grounds over the centuries. When Sam survives a near-death experience, she suddenly has the ability to see them all, and the ghosts are keen to take advantage of that.

"Ghosts" is still an ongoing series, with the sixth season due to kick off with a Halloween special on October 29, 2026. A major part of its longevity is the wide range of ghost backstories. Not only do the creators have their lifetimes to flash back to, but many of the ghosts have decades, even centuries of experiences the show can take advantage of for new stories. "It gives us a lot of directions to go to explore every character's background, pairing them up and seeing what stories come out of all these different pairings that we can do," co-showrunner Joe Wiseman told Gold Derby. "So it's really an embarrassment of riches!"

While there have been some terrible American remakes of British sitcoms over the decades, "Ghosts" is one of the success stories. Like the U.S. version of "The Office," it took the concept of the original and turned it into something that pays tribute to the British show via its setup and characters, but is still distinct from it. A lot of the American ghosts have clear counterparts in the original (particularly Pete, who, like Pat in the U.K. version, is a youth group leader who died after being accidentally shot through the neck with an arrow by a child in his care), but the CBS show is a bit more optimistic and sentimental in its approach compared to the BBC one.

It's no surprise that "Ghosts" worked in America, as it's "an incredibly portable idea," co-showrunner Joe Wiseman said. In fact, the U.S. version isn't the only remake — France, Germany, Greece, and Australia all have their own "Ghosts," with more international adaptations currently in the works. Does that mean there's the potential for crossovers in the future? "Ghosts" U.S. co-showrunner Joe Port doesn't think the shows can exist in the same world, but he would love to have the original British cast members make cameo appearances. "At some point, we'd like to have them all on, eventually," Port told TVLine.