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Medium Television Series Facts &
Trivia
Medium is an American supernatural and
dramatic television series which premiered on NBC on January
3, 2005. It focuses on Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette),
who acts as a research medium for the Phoenix, Arizona
district attorney's office. The lead character is a wife to
loving husband, Joe, and the mother of three daughters who
all inherited her gift, which is apparently passed from generation to
generation. The show is based on experiences from
self-proclaimed spiritual medium Allison DuBois, who claims
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 Television Studios, originally known as
Paramount Television and CBS Paramount Television.
After five seasons, NBC dropped the show in 2009, but it was
quickly picked up by CBS, whose production division produces
the show.
Plot
Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) is a strong-willed mother
of three, a devoted wife and law student who has had the
gift of being able to talk to dead people, as well as
foresee events, and witness past events in her dreams. When
she begins working for the Phoenix District Attorney,
Manuel Devalos, she has a dream which relates to a murder in Texas,
which convinces her boss and others working in the DA's
office that her gift is real.
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 in cryptic
visions which often do not mean what they initially suggest.
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 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.
In season four, it was revealed that Cynthia had a daughter
who was missing. Alison's dreams revealed to Cynthia that
her daughter was dead. Cynthia made a choice to kill the
murderer of her daughter and do time in jail. Keener later
appeared in season five to help Alison on a case for the
D.A. At that time, it was said that Cynthia has a couple
more months to go before she is eligible for parole. In the
season five finale, Allison discovers that she has a
brain-tumor located on her brainstem. In order to prevent
her family members apparent murders in the future, Allison
risked her life as she postpones the critical surgery to put
a case to rest. During her operation the tumor was
successfully removed, but Joe is told that Allison is in a
comatose state, with doubts of her survival.
The sixth season premiered on Friday September 25, 2009 on
CBS. In this episode, Allison had finally gotten out of coma
and was now suffering the consequences for postponing the
surgery. Aside from a non-usable right hand and a cane to
use while she walks, Allison's abilities slowly begin to
resurface (after four months) as a form of Deja Vu. At the
end of the episode, it is shown that Allison is slowly but
surely recovering when her right hand begins working.
Family
All of Allison's daughters appear to have inherited
Allison's gift. Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva) and Bridgette
(Maria Lark) also have 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 Carabello and Miranda Carabello),
also begins to exhibit a paranormal inclination. Currently,
she has been shown viewing a premium TV channel that the
family does not subscribe to, reading the mind of her
optometrist in order to pass her eye examination and
unknowingly using paper dolls to predict the future of her
father's company. In season 5, Marie had her first "dream",
where she saw herself on stage with stage fright during her
school's play. In earlier 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 developing gift she knows
very little about. The second season episode "Sweet Child
O'Mine" revealed hints that Allison and Joe lost their first
child, a boy, when a teenage boy named Bryan appears in
Allison's dreams, choked on salad and died.
Allison's younger half brother, Michael "Lucky", has the
family gift too, but doesn't like to acknowledge it, since
it always seems to bring him trouble. Initially Allison
believed the gift had skipped a generation and her mother
had had no psychic abilities. However, she later discovered
that her mother had always possessed the gift, but had done
everything she could to repress it.
Trivia
The show was inspired by the real-life "psychic", Allison DuBois.
The real Allison DuBois serves as a consultant to the show.
Child actresses Madison Carabello and Miranda Carabello are
real-life twin sisters who both share the role of Marie
Dubois. Because of restrictive child labor laws in the film
industry, the sisters alternate their parts enabling them
produce a greater body of work playing the same character in
the series.
Seasonal ratings/broadcast history
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per
episode) of Medium.
Note: Each U.S. network television season generally
starts in late September and ends in late May (except for
the fifth season), which coincides with the completion of
May sweeps. Times mentioned in this section are in
Eastern Time.
| Season |
Network |
Time slot |
Season premiere |
Season finale |
Episode
count |
TV season |
Season
rank |
Viewers
(in millions) |
|
1 |
NBC |
Monday 10:00 pm |
January 3, 2005 |
May 23, 2005 |
16 |
2004-2005 |
#19 |
13.9 |
|
2 |
September 19, 2005 |
May 22, 2006 |
22 |
2005-2006 |
#35 |
11.2 |
|
3 |
Wednesday 10:00 pm |
November 15, 2006 |
May 16, 2007 |
22 |
2006-2007 |
#61 |
8.5 |
|
4 |
Monday 10:00 pm |
January 7, 2008 |
May 12, 2008 |
16 |
2007-2008 |
#41 |
10.4 |
|
5 |
February 2, 2009 |
June 1, 2009 |
19 |
2008-2009 |
#61 |
8.5 |
|
6 |
CBS |
Friday 9:00 pm |
September 25, 2009 |
May 2010 |
22 |
2009-2010 |
— |
8.8 |
The series began a syndication run on the cable network
Lifetime on March 26, 2006.
| Season |
Ep # |
Discs |
Release Dates |
Bonus material (Region 1) |
| Region 1 |
Region 2 (UK) |
Region 2 (GER) |
Region 4 |
| 1 |
16 |
5 |
June 13, 2006 |
August 14, 2006 |
November 2, 2006 |
September 7, 2006 |
Extended "Pilot", "The Making of Medium",
"The Story of Medium" |
| 2 |
22 |
6 |
October 3, 2006 |
July 9, 2007 |
September 6, 2007 |
June 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 |
July 9, 2008 |
Deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentary |
| 4 |
16 |
4 |
September 9, 2008 |
June 15, 2009 |
September 3, 2009 |
June 3, 2009 |
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 |
| 5 |
19 |
5 |
October 6, 2009 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
Deleted scenes with commentary, "The Making of
Medium Season 5", gag reel, audio
commentaries |
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 |
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