Ghosted Budget

What Is the Budget of Ghosted (2017)?

Ghosted is a half-hour Fox sitcom produced by 20th Century Fox Television, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Gettin' Rad Productions, created by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten. The show aired a single 16-episode season on Fox from October 1, 2017 to July 22, 2018. Fox and 20th Century Fox Television did not publicly disclose per-episode budgets. US broadcast network single-camera half-hour comedies of this scale (name leads, Los Angeles shoot, modest visual effects) were typically budgeted between $1,800,000 and $2,500,000 per episode in the 2017-18 window, placing total production spend between approximately $29,000,000 and $40,000,000 across the 16-episode order.

20th Century Fox Television deficit-financed the production against the expected Fox network license fee and back-end syndication revenue, an industry-standard arrangement that left the studio holding most of the financial exposure on the project.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

US broadcast network single-camera half-hour supernatural comedy productions of this scale allocate budget across these areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation, Big Little Lies) and Craig Robinson (The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine) drew the show's largest single-episode cost item, with both leads commanding established broadcast comedy compensation tiers.
• Los Angeles Production Base: Filming took place across Los Angeles soundstages and on-location work, taking advantage of the city's standing crew base. The production did not relocate to a tax-incentive territory.
• Visual Effects: The show's paranormal premise required modest but consistent visual-effects work each episode for ghost manifestations, possession effects, and supernatural sight gags. Vendor work was supplied by The Third Floor and Modus FX.
• Supporting Cast and Guest Stars: Recurring supporting cast including Ally Walker, Amber Stevens West, and Brian Huskey, plus rotating guest stars in the paranormal-investigation-of-the-week format, expanded the talent budget across the season.
• Single-Camera Production: Single-camera shooting style (rather than multi-camera sitcom) required film-style scheduling with longer per-episode shoot days, driving above-the-line and below-the-line spend higher than a traditional studio-audience sitcom would absorb.
• Mid-Season Showrunner Reset: After the initial showrunner Paul Lieberstein (The Office) departed during production, the show underwent a creative reset under Kevin Etten that involved retooling the back half of the season, adding incremental writing-room and reshoot costs.

How Does Ghosted's Budget Compare to Similar Single-Camera Comedies?

Ghosted sat in the standard tier of late-2010s US broadcast network single-camera half-hour comedy production. Reference points within the same broadcast window:

• The Last Man on Earth (2015): Fox single-camera comedy with comparable broadcast tier, reported per-episode budget around $2,000,000 to $2,500,000.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 5 (2017): Fox single-camera ensemble comedy in the same broadcast season, reported per-episode budget around $2,500,000.
• Speechless (2016): ABC single-camera family comedy, reported per-episode budget around $1,800,000.
• Trial & Error (2017): NBC single-camera comedy in the same year, reported per-episode budget around $1,800,000 to $2,200,000.

Ghosted Box Office and Ratings Performance

As a Fox broadcast comedy, Ghosted does not generate theatrical box office. Its commercial performance is measured through Nielsen ratings, ad-sales revenue, and back-end international and syndication sales of the closed 16-episode library by 20th Century Fox Television (acquired by Disney mid-broadcast in the 2019 acquisition).

• Production Budget: estimated $29,000,000 to $40,000,000 across 16 episodes
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): absorbed into Fox network marketing
• Total Estimated Investment: estimated $29,000,000 to $40,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: not applicable (broadcast comedy)
• Net Return: driven by Fox ad-sales during 2017-18 broadcast plus 20th Century Fox Television international and SVOD library sales (the show streamed on Hulu in the US post-cancellation)
• ROI: limited; the show did not earn a second season order and is widely cited as a cautionary example of late-2010s Fox half-hour comedy attrition

Ghosted averaged approximately 4,800,000 viewers across its delayed Sunday-night and burned-off summer broadcast slots, a soft result that placed it in cancellation territory by mid-season. Fox cancelled the show in May 2018 and burned off the remaining episodes through July 2018, with the series finale airing July 22, 2018.

Ghosted Production History

Ghosted was developed at Fox by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten in 2016, with Gormican initially attached as showrunner. The pilot was directed by Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia, Baskets), establishing a visual register more cinematic than typical broadcast sitcom. The series received a straight-to-series 13-episode order from Fox in May 2017 and quickly expanded to 16 episodes ahead of the fall premiere.

Paul Lieberstein (Toby on The Office, post-Office showrunner) took over as showrunner before the start of production. Following Fox's evaluation of early episodes, Lieberstein departed in mid-production and the show was retooled under co-creator Kevin Etten, with several mid-season scripts reworked and reshoots ordered to shift the tone from supernatural-conspiracy thriller toward broader workplace comedy. The mid-production retool delayed several episodes and was widely reported in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter during early 2018.

Fox moved the show from its original Sunday 8:30pm slot to lower-priority Sunday slots before pulling it from the schedule entirely in spring 2018. Cancellation was announced in May 2018, with the final episodes burned off across June and July 2018. The series concluded with no resolution to its season-long Bureau Underground arc.

Awards and Recognition

Ghosted did not receive significant industry awards recognition. The series was not nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Critics' Choice Television Awards, or the Television Critics Association Awards. The show received minor Saturn Award nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films for Best Television Genre New Series in 2018.

The series is regarded within US television industry coverage as a cautionary example of late-2010s broadcast half-hour comedy attrition under Fox's pre-Disney acquisition strategic uncertainty, with both showrunner departures and audience erosion frequently cited in retrospective accounts.

Critical Reception

Critical reception was mixed. The show holds a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 38 critic reviews, with a critical consensus that praised the Adam Scott and Craig Robinson chemistry while criticizing the inconsistent tone between supernatural premise and workplace-sitcom execution. On Metacritic, the show scored 53 out of 100.

The New York Times's James Poniewozik called the show "pleasantly amiable" but lacking in narrative momentum, and Variety's Sonia Saraiya criticized the show's inability to settle into a clear comic voice across the mid-season retool. Fan reception softened further as the showrunner change and tonal inconsistency became visible to audiences, and the show did not develop the cult following that would later attach to other cancelled late-2010s genre comedies.