The showrunners of the CBS sitcom Ghosts address their surprising handling of season 1’s Jay cliffhanger in the season 2 premiere episode.
The showrunners of Ghosts explain the premiere's surprising decision involving Jay. Along with the ABC comedy Abbott Elementary, the CBS series Ghosts has been frequently credited with helping to give a boost to the half-hour format by telling funny and heartfelt stories that have also managed to hook an audience. An adaptation of the British series with the same version, the CBS version focuses on married couple Samantha (iZombie star Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar, Never Have I Ever) and details what happens to their lives when Samantha has a near-death experience and starts to communicate with spirits.
As detailed in the Ghosts season 1 cliffhanger though, Jay might start seeing ghosts as well. After all, just like Sam, he suffers a nasty fall. Ambudkar's character tumbles through the floor, inevitably hitting his head. When he wakes up in the Ghosts season 2 debut, Jay wonders if he's gained some sort of connection to another realm. But, after toying with the possibility a bit, it becomes clear that Jay hadn't acquired any new powers as a result of the accident.
In an interview with TVLine, co-showrunners Joe Wiseman and Joe Port discuss the way they handled the Jay cliffhanger. Wiseman mentions how, if Jay had the same abilities Sam did, it would significantly alter and essentially break the premise of Ghosts. Port concurs, adding that he liked the uniqueness of Sam's connection with the spirit world and didn't want to go in what seemed like the obvious direction:
Wiseman: It just felt like it was going to be too much of a premise-breaking development. We’re only 18 episodes in from the first season, and it seems sort of like it’s Sam’s thing, and it’s his thing that he sort of has to deal with being this guy who’s not privy to what’s going on. We just don’t want to blow that up yet.
Port: I know we’re a TV show, but it seems like a very TV-ish direction to go, I guess. I didn’t mind the head-fake in that direction, but it seems like Sam’s power is very rare. It doesn’t seem like this should be something that happens to that many people that hit their heads. So I just thought it would be too much that it would happen to two people in the same household. [...] It’s partly that [it was too early on], as well. But I also think him having that power in that way, I don’t know that that’s a place to go. I’m not sure.
Wiseman: [It’s] the type of show where he could have died or he could have seen them for a little while. In our mind, it was a valid, fun cliffhanger, and then, ultimately, when we thought about it, we didn’t want to go there yet.