I confess I've written more than my fair share of posts complaining about the never-ending march of paranormal, ghost busting shows haunting TV these days. You know the shows I refer to -- the "documentaries" promising to prove the existence of ghosts without ever finding anything resembling actual proof.

Every time I've written something bemoaning the arrival of another such show, I think it has to be over soon. There can't be another hour of clods stumbling around in night vision and reacting to sights and sounds the audience doesn't get to experience.

But, they keep coming. They keep finding nothing. But, evidently, people keep watching them. Now, we have Ghost Intervention -- running through December. The 4-part docu-series from TLC "chronicles a case manager and a team of women with psychic abilities as they try to help different families who are struggling with paranormal activity in their homes."

There was a time when ghosts, apparitions and other paranormal entities led a quiet, under-the-radar sort of un-life. Now, thanks to the proliferation of reality or documentary-style TV shows devoted to the subject, the poor dead have nowhere to hide.

These days everybody wants to talk about their brush with the inexplicable, and it seems there are more paranormal investigators than actual ghosts stumbling around in the dark. How believable are these shows? Let's see.

Some shows are creepy just because, well, they're icky to think about. Like 'The Girls Next Door' (twins sleeping with the same old guy!) or 'Hoarders' (the ultimate pack-rats!). Then there are shows that are frightening, but in a good way. Read on for eight such shows that make you look under the bed at night, avoid cemeteries, and ponder alternate universes.

If a show like Top Chef never found a meal, would you watch it? If Ice Road Truckers couldn't find snow, would you pay attention?

Yet, every week, paranormal investigation shows like Ghost Hunters or Paranormal State hit the air and unveil the whole pile of absolute squat they found. Now, there's a new contender in the "Hey! Look! We found pretty much nothing!" category with the Discovery Channel's Ghost Lab.

Each week two thick slabs of Texas beef named Brad and Barry Klinge (right) take their Everyday Paranormal investigation team out into the wild haunted yonder. They come armed with their traveling "ghost lab" -- a 24-foot car hauler "capable of providing 200,000 watts of electricity to power audio, video and photo analysis stations; flat-screen televisions and an interactive touch-screen smartboard."

'24'
(9PM, Fox)
Once again, Jack's forced to make some decisions that may ultimately prove unpopular (and may add to the jail time that Senate committee is itching to give him) when a potential terrorist act looms, while Agent Walker finds herself conflicted about whether or not Jack's way is the right way to deal with baddies.

'The Electric Company Stunt'
(Check local listings for time and channel, PBS) series premiere
The 1971-77 'Sesame Street' spin-off that featured Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby is remade as a kid-friendly series that still aims to teach youngsters to use the letters they learn on 'Street' to form words, using music, humor, and in this redo, beat boxing.

Well, this was probably inevitable. With the success of A&E's Paranormal State hanging over the heads of the SciFi Channel, the network has given a thumbs-up to a new Ghost Hunters pilot that will join the original as well as Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunter Babies. All right, there is no such thing as Ghost Hunter Babies, but it would be a good idea. Think about it for a moment -- the babies would literally be peeing and pooping in their pants when they saw or felt something ghost-like rather than just saying that they did.

The new pilot is called Ghost Hunters: College Edition. In this edition the hunters would be, you guessed it, college students. Instead of teaming up and performing investigations on their own -- like they do on Paranormal State -- these students would team up with professional investigators to examine claims of paranormal events across the globe. In other words, look for some cross-overs between this show and its two older siblings.

I understand that Ghost Hunters is one of the SciFi Channel's hits, but isn't the network heading towards the point of saturation by adding a third series? With three series you begin to parse out smaller and smaller groups of viewers to each show, which brings down the popularity of the original. Something to think about, network executives, when you decide on giving a green light to Ghost Hunters: The Animated Series.