Tyler Henry

Tyler Henry (born January 13, 1996) is an American reality show personality who appears in the series Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry as a clairvoyant medium. The series began broadcast on the E! Television Network in the United States in January 2016, and was E!'s largest launch of a non-spinoff unscripted series in the past three years with 3.2 million viewers for its third episode. A number of critics and skeptics have called Henry a "grief vampire" and criticized the show for targeting people who are grieving and vulnerable and exploiting them for entertainment.

Early life

Henry is a native of Hanford, California, a small rural suburb just outside Fresno.

After giving readings to students and teachers at Hanford's Sierra Pacific High School, from which he graduated on an accelerated academic program, Henry initially aspired to attend college and become a hospice nurse. However, Henry soon was "discovered". Before long, he gained a celebrity clientele and a reality TV development deal. Henry, who has never had a driver's license and who is often driven to readings by his mother, began filming his E! television series when he was 19 years old; the show began airing a week after his 20th birthday. Henry reportedly welcomes skepticism about his work: "I am content with people asking questions", he told the Fresno Bee.

Career

Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry premiered on E! on January 24, 2016. After a successful premiere, E! ordered two additional episodes, making it 10 episodes total. The show airs Sunday nights at 10 pm. In March 2016, It was announced that E! had ordered a second season of the show.

In March 2016, E! reported that Henry was writing his first memoir with Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The book publisher told E! that the book "will reveal what living life as a medium is really like—from opening up about discovering his gift as a young teen to what it's truly like to communicate with the departed. He also discusses the difficulty he had accepting his rare talents and the courage it took to share them with the world."

Praise

A number of well-known people in the entertainment and sports industries have called on Tyler and were left singing his praises. Retired NBA player John Salley was left without any doubts about Tyler's abilities. "He was spot on," Salley said following his reading. "I know I was right to be into health and wellness and he validated it." Actress Monica Potter had one of the most heart-warming readings with Tyler during season 1 of the show, according to fans. He connected her to her late father and the actress took to Twitter to share her emotions. "He truly is such a kind and amazing soul!" she said of Tyler. Former skeptic Tom Arnold was brought to tears during his reading and left it a believer.

A number of the predictions Tyler made on season one of Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry have been validated, including what he told Amber Rose about her love life and what the gender of reality star and professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek's baby would be.

Bloggers have also given Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry high marks. Digital Spy had this to say: "Tyler's readings produce such intricate detail that he has everyone floored with every revelation. Us included. There are just some things you can't Google, and he makes sure he picks up on the most personal of visions."

Criticism

Susan Gerbic has dismissed Henry as one of many "grief vampires" who have gained recent cultural notoriety, and she is particularly critical of Henry's stated aspiration of offering counseling to parents who have lost children to suicide, a practice Gerbic describes as "prey[ing] on families when they are the most desperate and vulnerable". Gerbic describes the performances as "a fabric of lies", saying that people like Henry "prey on the poor and disaffected." Sharon Hill has also been critical, saying "It's hardly a 'skill' to guess at celebrities' lives", noting that his apparent successes on the show are "craftily edited" for television audiences. "What Henry's doing isn't entertainment" states Hemant Mehta, "it's deception". Mehta doubts that Henry will submit to scientific trials, and feels that he is "just the latest telegenic star on a network dedicated to celebrating vapid people." Neurologist Steven Novella agrees with Gerbic that psychics like Henry are "grief vampires" who say they are giving comfort to grieving families: "Henry wishes to inject made up BS. He is not a trained counselor, and working with the grieving is very tricky. The potential for harm is tremendous." David Gorski writes that if Henry restricted his readings to celebrities as entertainment, then that would be harmless, but Henry wants to work with grieving parents whose children have committed suicide. "Likely the producer of his show is looking for such grieving parents right now, fodder for the grief vampire, to be shown for the morbid entertainment of the masses." Huffington Post entertainment writer Cole Delbyck criticized the show and Henry's claims to connect celebrities with their deceased loved ones, saying, "from the previews, it looks fairly exploitative and tasteless".

Mentalist Mark Edward and Gerbic commented in detail on the readings Henry gave to Ross Matthews, Margaret Cho, Jodie Sweetin and Julian Ross Reed (Season 1, Episode 3). The skeptics state that Henry does not need to know who he is reading for in advance as "it appears to be nothing more than lukewarm cold-reading, flattery and generalities." The sitters in the post interviews claimed that Henry had been very specific, but Gerbic and Edward could not find one single hit, noting errors in memory for each sitter.