'Cheers' and 'Taxi' Showrunner Ken Estin Leads Psychic-Fraud Series

Two-time Emmy winner Ken Estin, the showrunner behind "Taxi" and "Cheers," will run "Psychic Predators," a paranormal dramatic comedy starring mentalist Banachek as himself. Organic Media Group (OMG) unveiled the series at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei and will also take it to the American Film Market.

Estin, whose credits also include "The Tracey Ullman Show," joins creator and executive producer Steve Chicorel. He signed on after reading Chicorel's pilot script, "The Voice of God," and will oversee writing the rest of the season if the series gets commissioned.

What is the show about?

Banachek plays a famous mentalist who earns his living deceiving people, but always admits his feats are tricks. A hard-charging TV producer persuades executives at TRN, The Reality Network, to back a show that catches fake psychics red-handed. Banachek then goes undercover with a magician skilled in disguise and a tough female FBI agent.

The producers compare the setup to "Mission Impossible" crossed with "Curb Your Enthusiasm," transplanted into investigative TV. Behind the scenes, the team must handle network executives' demands, clashing egos and the tension between uncovering truth and landing an unscripted hit.

"Ken was remarkably young when he showran those legendary series – winning his first Emmy in his twenties – and he's as sharp and funny as ever," Chicorel said. "But we didn't bring him on just for the jokes. His work finds the vulnerability, heartbreak and humanity that give both comedy and drama their power. That balance of humor and pathos is exactly what 'Psychic Predators' needs to entertain audiences while exposing uncomfortable truths."

Estin frames the show's method in similar terms. "Like 'MAS*H,' which illuminated the horrors of war, comedy lets us get past people's defenses so they can hear important messages – like the ones Steve & Banachek built into 'Psychic Predators' to explore the magic of why we believe – and what happens when someone exploits that belief," he said.

The real history behind the fiction

The series draws directly on Banachek's own career. The late skeptic James "The Amazing" Randi mentored him, and at 18 he joined Project Alpha, one of the most famous stings in paranormal research. Posing as a psychic, he used conjuring methods to expose weaknesses in researchers' experimental controls while Randi showed the overconfident scientists how the same effects could be faked.

Banachek also helped Randi unmask televangelist Peter Popoff, whose supposed messages from God were relayed through a concealed earpiece. The pilot dramatizes a con of that type.

Later episodes will target:

• pseudoscience and bogus medical treatments
• expensive fortune-telling scams
• rigged paranormal events
• faked alien encounters
• exploitative spiritual leaders and doomsday cults

Chicorel and Banachek plan to bring in other top magicians who know how apparently impossible feats are pulled off, performers in the vein of Houdini, who debunked mediums preying on the grieving. The drama and the reality show inside it share one rule: stay open to extraordinary claims, but insist on solid evidence.

Who is behind it?

OMG has bases in Los Angeles, Taipei and Brisbane. Chicorel co-founded it with Kelly Mi Li, who stars in and executive produces Netflix's unscripted hit "Bling Empire" and hosts and executive produces the celebrity talk show "Stir the Pot." The pair's scripted credits include "Cypher," the first original drama series made exclusively for Roku.

With Estin aboard and AFM ahead, the project now needs a buyer — and a commission — to turn its pilot sting into a full season.