Fact or Faked
| Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Documentary Reality Paranormal Mystery |
| Starring | Ben Hansen Jael de Pardo |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Brenkus Mickey Stern |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Base Productions |
| Distributor | Syfy |
| Release | |
| Original network | Syfy |
| Original release | July 15, 2010 – May 16, 2012 |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files is a paranormal investigation series produced by Base Productions that began airing July 15, 2010, on SyFy. The show follows a team of investigators, led by former FBI agent Ben Hansen, who review various photographs and viral videos (mainly from the internet) of alleged paranormal activity. If a particular piece of evidence is deemed intriguing enough to warrant further investigation, they set out to recreate and explain the sighting.
Beginning episode #207 in the first half of season two, the show began to feature a "You Decide" segment in the middle of the program where a video is shown of something strange and then asks the viewing audience if they think the footage is fact or faked. After a commercial break the truth behind the video is revealed.
As of December 2016, Syfy has not announced another season of Fact or Faked.
As of fall 2014, reruns of Fact or Faked can be found on Syfy's sister channel Chiller. As of October 2016, episodes of "Fact or Faked" can be found on Destination America listed as new but are in fact reruns.
The show has been described as "Destination Truth mixed with MythBusters". A Variety magazine review says – "Now we know what Fox Mulder would have done after leaving "The X-Files" unit: Get his own reality-TV show!" Will Wade of Common Sense Media said the squad seemed like it was selected for the skill set rather than their readiness for TV.
Skeptical researchers such as Karen Stollznow of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) have criticized the investigating competence of the Fact or Faked team, such as the Civil War cemetery ghost case from episode 6 in particular. The examined footage involves an alleged orb and mist captured on a few frames of video, and when the FoF team unsuccessfully recreate it, they conclude it to be paranormal. Stollznow claimed that by slowing the video down frame-by-frame, something that the FoF team did not do (at least on camera), the orb and mist are supposedly revealed to be a spider on a web.
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Wikipedia