Nick Groff Left 'Ghost Adventures' at the Height of the Show's Popularity — but Why?

Ghost Adventures has steadily been one of the highest-rated and most-viewed paranormal TV shows for a long, long time. The show's lead investigator and executive producer, Zak Bagans, may get a lot of flak for his "over-the-top" personality, but there's no denying he's a huge draw, and has become the face of the paranormal world for many viewers all over the world. But there are other members of the GA team, like Nick Groff, and fans all over want to know: why did he leave the show?

Nick was one of the show's original investigators, along with Zak and Aaron Goodwin, who was a cameraman and hadn't given that much thought or time to the study of the paranormal. Nick, in addition to his on-camera role for the show, was an executive producer of the program and helped edit and shoot Ghost Adventures as well. 

Nick was with the show for 10 straight seasons and many fans enjoyed the on-screen chemistry of Nick, Zak, and Aaron. Nick was attributed with helping grow the audience of the show and establishing it as a distinct paranormal brand from other reality shows in the same genre like Ghost Hunters and MTV's Fear. But on Nov. 24 2014, Nick announced his departure from the show.

There's a lot of speculation as to why Nick decided to depart from the popular Travel Channel program and venture off into other paranormal projects. But there are some pieces that can be put together to paint a decent assumption as to what ultimately caused Nick to leave the show and attempt to lead his own productions.

Longtime fans attribute Nick's departure to a perceived "ego trip" on Zak's part. Many believe that Zak's persona changed drastically from early seasons as the show progressed. More and more screen time was dedicated to the muscular front man, which, allegedly, didn't sit right with Nick. Especially because Nick's "objectives" and "contributions" in the show became less and less visible to audiences.

Some say that this fomented beef between Zack and Nick or was a result of a prior grudge that had been growing between the two men. They were allegedly very competitive with one another and Nick had some very specific ways he wanted to investigate in the show that weren't explored on camera, which only led to further problems between the two.

If there was a beef between them, that seemed to be compounded by some tweets that Zak had sent out in response to Nick's announcement and promotion of a recent show he was involved with, Paranormal Lockdown. Although Zak didn't name Nick specifically in the tweets, he said he was "disgusted" by the fact a former cast member was using their past with Ghost Adventures to promote a new show — everyone pretty much knew the exact cast member he was talking about.

Right after Nick's departure from Ghost Adventures, he helmed a new program titled Ghost Stalkers that featured paranormal investigator and actor Chad Lindberg, John E.L. Tenney, and David Rountree. The show only ran for a single six-episode season. Paranormal Lockdown, his most recent ghost hunting venture, was canceled as well.

He co-founded Vidi Space, a streaming service with original content that specializes in indie and artist content from across the globe. Subscriptions cost $90 a year or you can nab it for $10 a month, there are free trials available too. He'll also be featuring his own show, Small Town Monsters exclusively on the platform, so if you're a fan of Groff's work, you might want to check it out when it drops.

As for the real reason why Nick left Ghost Adventures, the truth is that only him, his former cast/team members, and the producers of the show know what happened.