Jay Gianukos is the producer of the dating game show Paths of Love. He is the personification of the mantra "time is money" and gets increasingly frustrated by the various problems the show is experiencing and the way they are handled. He is therefore not pleased when his lead bachelor Todd Kramer falls into a coma after a suspicious car crash and his director Steve Rollins brings the 'boring' Shawn and Gus onto the show to investigate. However, he changes his mind when they cause the drama of Mario's mental breakdown, which makes him like them a lot more.
Gianukos becomes a suspect himself when Shawn notices how affectionately he treats the show's bachelorette, Melinda. The reasoning of the SBPD is that Gianukos has inadvertently fallen in love with her and is now trying to kill off all of the show's contestants to have her to himself. This theory is quickly replaced by a new one, however, when they learn that Gianukos has heavily insured his struggling show with his own money, which would mean that the only way he could limit his financial losses is by murdering the show's contestants and collecting the money from their accidental death clauses. Gianukos digs himself into an even deeper hole by lying about selling the show to NBC and is swiftly arrested for attempted murder.
However, this later turns out to be the incorrect decision, as it is discovered that it is in fact cameraman Hank who was behind the attempted murders. He was enraged that Gianukos refused to credit him for coming up with the idea for the show and became determined to sabotage it at any cost.
Trivia[]
- Jay is enthused by Shawn's pitch regarding a reality show about the crabbing industry called America's Got Crabs.