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Medium (TV series)
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Medium is an American supernatural and dramatic television series which premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005. The series is about Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) who acts as a research medium for the Phoenix, Arizona, district attorney's office. The show is based on experiences from self-proclaimed spiritual medium Allison DuBois, who has claimed to have worked with law enforcement agencies across the country in criminal investigations.
Medium was created by Glenn Gordon Caron and is produced by Picturemaker Productions and Grammnet Productions in association with CBS Paramount Television.
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m3394818",this)' onMouseout='hide("m3394818")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Allison_DuBois">Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) is a strong-willed mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who starts to believe that she can talk to dead people, see the future in her dreams, and read people's thoughts.
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Encyclopedia
Medium is an American supernatural and dramatic television series which premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005. The series is about Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) who acts as a research medium for the Phoenix, Arizona, district attorney's office. The show is based on experiences from self-proclaimed spiritual medium Allison DuBois, who has claimed to have worked with law enforcement agencies across the country in criminal investigations.
Medium was created by Glenn Gordon Caron and is produced by Picturemaker Productions and Grammnet Productions in association with CBS Paramount Television.
Plot
Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) is a strong-willed mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who starts to believe that she can talk to dead people, see the future in her dreams, and read people's thoughts. Fearing for her mental health, she turns for support to her husband Joe (Jake Weber), an aerospace engineer, who slowly comes to believe that what his wife is telling him just might be true, upon discovering that some of her dreams match the details of a murder in Texas.
The real challenge is initially convincing her boss, D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) — and subsequently the other doubters in the criminal justice system — that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving violent and horrifying crimes, whose mysteries often reside with those who lie beyond the grave. Information on certain people or crimes come to her in dreams or visions in cryptic forms, and often do not mean what they seem to.
All of her daughters appear to have inherited Allison's gift, with Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva) and Bridgette (Maria Lark) also having visions or dreams, which usually occur when their mother is in a bind in searching for answers to her own dreams. In Season 3, Allison's youngest daughter, Marie (Madison and Miranda Carabello), is also shown to have a paranormal inclination. Currently, she has only been shown to watch a premium TV channel that the family does not subscribe to, as well as reading the mind of her optometrist in order to pass her sight test. In early seasons, Bridgette never appears to be bothered by her abilities, but during season 4 she has some moments of frustration either understanding her visions or communicating them to her parents. Ariel usually has a harder time trying to cope with a gift she knows very little about.
Allison's younger half brother, Michael "Lucky", has the family gift too, but doesn't like to acknowledge it much, since it always seems to bring him trouble.
Allison is often accompanied by Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt), who initially did not believe in her "gift". Allison often bends the rules of the law when she is determined to stop a crime from happening about which she's had a vision. Additionally, Allison has helped and been helped by Captain Kenneth Push of the Texas Rangers (Arliss Howard), who is the first law-enforcement person to whom Allison revealed her gift, and Cynthia Keener (Anjelica Huston) of AmeriTips.
Main Cast
| Actor/Actress | Character | Role | Notes | Duration |
|---|
| Patricia Arquette | Allison DuBois | Medium assisting the District Attorney of Phoenix, private attorneys, police & investigators | Protagonist | Season 1 - present | | Jake Weber | Joe DuBois | Engineer | Allison's husband | | Miguel Sandoval | Manuel Devalos | District Attorney of Phoenix | Allison's boss | | Sofia Vassilieva | Ariel DuBois | — | Eldest DuBois daughter | | Maria Lark | Bridgette DuBois | — | Middle DuBois daughter | | David Cubitt | Lee Scanlon | Detective | Allison's coworker | Season 1 (recurring),
Season 2 - present | | Tina DiJoseph | Lynn DiNovi | Mayor's Liaison, later Deputy Mayor | Lee's girlfriend | Season 1 - present (recurring) | | Madison Carabello | Marie DuBois | — | Youngest DuBois daughter | Season 1 - present (recurring) | | Miranda Carabello | | Ryan Hurst | Michael "Lucky" Benoit | — | Allison's half-brother | Season 1 - 3 (recurring) | | Arliss Howard | Kenneth Push | Captain of the Texas Rangers | — | Season 1 - 4 (recurring) | | Bruce Gray | Mr. Dubois | Joe's father | Ghost appearing in dreams | Season 1 - 4 (recurring) | | Kathy Baker | Mrs. Dubois | Joe's mother | — | Season 1 - 4 (recurring) | | Anjelica Huston | Cynthia Keener | AmeriTips investigator | Allison's employer | Season 4 - present (recurring) |
Main Crew
Executive Producers:
Principal Writers:
Principal Directors:
Notable guest stars
Reception
Ratings
The series premiere received 16.13 million viewers and a 6.3 rating in the 18-49 demo against CSI: Miamis 18.17 million and 6.6 rating. Medium was a consistent performer throughout its first season and landed in the Nielsen Top 20 with an average of 13.9 million viewers. The series remained in its original time slot for the second season when the network announced its Fall 2005 schedule. Throughout the season, the series experienced a decline in viewership, pulling an average of 11 million viewers. Medium was renewed for a third season in April 2006, but was missing from NBC's Fall 2006 schedule. The series was slated to return in early 2007; however, in October it was announced that production would resume immediately for a third season start-up on November 15, 2006, replacing the time slot vacated by Kidnapped. Its move to the Wednesday time slot opposite CBS' CSI: NY and ABC's Lost lead to some ratings erosion, in comparison to the ratings success of the first two seasons, with year-end ratings for the third season dipping into single-digit millions of viewers. Despite the ratings decline on Wednesdays, the series was seen by the network as a reliable self-starter, building on its then lead-in Crossing Jordan. The ratings decline put the series on the bubble for renewal, but the series showed signs of life when NBC requested six additional scripts in April 2007.
Renewal for a fourth season of Medium was announced on May 7, 2007, with an undetermined premiere date and number of episodes. It was the seventh series to be renewed by the network, behind solid performers Heroes and Law & Order: SVU. One week later, the network announced that Medium would move to the Sunday 9 p.m. time slot upon its return in January 2008. News on the series' return did not come until December 2007 when NBC announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10 p.m. EST time slot, despite the WGA Strike of 2007, which forced the show to cease production, allowing for only nine segments/episodes to be filmed. Scheduling returning mid-season shows in timeslots where they were previously successful was a pattern for NBC during the strike: Law & Order returned to Wednesdays at 10 and The Apprentice was back on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
With the ratings improvement Medium demonstrated in its fourth season after returning to Mondays, it was one of the first series to be renewed in an early announcement in April 2008 from NBC regarding its 2008-09 season. Similar to the previous season, Medium was initially scheduled to move to the Sunday night line-up; however, a December 2008 press release revealed that the fifth season would air in the series' original Monday night 10 p.m. time slot.
Seasonal ratings/NBC broadcast history
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Medium on NBC.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. Times mentioned in this section are in North American Eastern Time.
| Season | Time slot | Season premiere | Season finale | TV season | Season
rank | Viewers
(in millions) |
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| 1 | Monday 10:00 pm | January 3, 2005 | May 23, 2005 | 2004-2005 | #19 | 13.9 |
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| 2 | September 19, 2005 | May 22, 2006 | 2005-2006 | #35 | 11.2 |
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| 3 | Wednesday 10:00 pm | November 15, 2006 | May 16, 2007 | 2006-2007 | #61 | 8.5 |
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| 4 | Monday 10:00 pm | January 7, 2008 | May 12, 2008 | 2007-2008 | #41 | 10.4 |
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| 5 | February 2, 2009 | May 25, 2009 | 2008-2009 | — | — |
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The series began an off-network syndication run on the cable network Lifetime on March 26, 2006.
Awards
| Year | Group | Award | Result | Recipient(s) |
|---|
| 2005 | BMI Film & TV Awards | BMI TV Music Award | Won | Mychael Danna, Jeff Beal | | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Won | Patricia Arquette | | Imagen Foundation Awards | Best Actor - Television | Nominated | Miguel Sandoval | | Satellite Award | Outstanding Actress in a Series, Drama | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama | Nominated | Jake Weber | | 2006 | ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards | ASCAP Award - Top TV Series | Won | Sean Callery | | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films | Saturn Award - Best Actress in a Television Program | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Golden Globes | Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Motion Picture Sound Editors | Golden Reel Award - Best Sound Editing in Television Short Form - Music | Won | Robert Cotnoir (music editor) For "The Song Remains the Same" | | Screen Actors Guild | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a TV Series (Drama) - Supporting Young Actress | Won | Sofia Vassilieva | | Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Young Actress Age Ten or Younger | Nominated | Maria Lark | | 2007 | ALMA Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actor - Television Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie | Nominated | Miguel Sandoval | | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films | Saturn Award - Best Actress in a Television Program | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Golden Globes | Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Screen Actors Guild | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | 2008 | Golden Globes | Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama | Nominated | Patricia Arquette | | Emmy Award | Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series | Nominated | Anjelica Huston |
DVD releases
| Season | Ep # | Discs | Releases dates | Bonus material (Region 1) |
|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 (UK) | Region 2 (GER) |
|---|
| 1 | 16 | 5 | June 13, 2006 | August 14, 2006 | November 2, 2006 | Extended "Pilot", "The Making of Medium", "The Story of Medium" | | 2 | 22 | 6 | October 3, 2006 | July 9, 2007 | September 6, 2007 | Deleted scenes, "The Story of Medium Season 2", "Medium in Another Dimension", "A Day in the Life of the Dubois Daughters", The Museum of Television and Radio Q&A with Cast and Creative Team, gag reel, audio commentary | | 3 | 22 | 6 | October 16, 2007 | July 7, 2008 | November 6, 2008 | Deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentary | | 4 | 16 | 4 | September 9, 2008 | TBA | TBA | Deleted scenes with commentary by Glenn Gordon Caron and Larry Teng, "Joe's Crayon Dream", "Introducing Cynthia Keener", "The Making of Medium season 4", Gag reel |
External links
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