JERICHO
Returns July 6th
9:00 p.m. EDT
CBS
The cult hit, Jericho, which was cancelled and then resurrected through the efforts of self proclaimed "Jericho Rangers" and perhaps the "nuttiest" Save Our Show Campaign in the history of television returns with rebroadcasts of the seasons episodes starting this Friday night.
The show, featuring Skeet Ulrich (L) and Lennie James (R) (Pictured Above) has also been renewed for fall with a minimum order of seven new episodes.
Given that the show was dead in the water when the fall schedule was announced, the renewal is little short of a miracle. CBS, as networks are prone to do, relied solely on the "Nielson" ratings to determine the audience for the show. When Jericho debuted in September of '06 it was considered one of the surprise hits of the new season. But after an ill-advised almost three month hiatus it lost a substantial share of its audience. The fact that it returned against the beginning of the "American Idol" season did not help matters and the show fell to "the bubble" and then below the bubble of renewal.
However fans were vocal and just short of militant in their pursual of a new season for Jericho. As you may have heard by now if you read entertainment news at all, a campaign to bury CBS in peanuts was hatched and implemented. Based on character Jake Green's (Ulrich) reply to the demand that Jericho lay down their arms and stop the defense of their town from the hostile takeover by neighboring New Bern.
"Nuts!" The line came from an epic WWII battle but became a line in a cult series and the rallying cry of those "Jericho Rangers" who organized and shipped over 25 tons of nuts to CBS offices in protest.
About the same time Nielson revealed that when shows are "divo'd", recorded using a Divo, and watched within three to seven days, Jericho gained substantially in the ratings. And the gain, not surprisingly, came in that oh-so-desired demographic of 18-47 year old males. Plus, it was noted (and who knew it could be checked) that those self-same people did not skip through the commercials, making this a boon that advertisers might actually like.
Yet another factor came into play, the roughly half a million people who it was learned were actually watching the show at their leisure each week online... at CBS.COM... via the very vehicle that "The Eye" network had put in place to accomodate those 18-47 year olds...
In other words, part of Jericho's demise lay at the feet of CBS. First for breaking the continuity of the show with a lengthy hiatus and then for penalizing and not counting the people who used the method CBS gave them to watch the show!
Eventually CBS yielded and ordered the minimum order of seven new episodes to air sometime in the fall... best guess is as early as November... and a re-airing of the pilot (this Friday) followed by the "second season"... the episodes that aired after the hiatus along with a "Return to Jericho" episode next week that recaps episodes 2 - 11.
For those who have not heard, Jericho is the story of a small town in Kansas that must come together to survive after nuclear weapons destroy several larger American cities. It is an drama that deals with the emotions and the lives of those in the town and those they come in contact with from outside their borders. Some are good, some are bad. Life goes on and the people try to live it as normally as possible given the circumstances.
Jericho features a stellar cast, led by Skeet Ulrich as the "prodigal son" of the town's mayor, played himself by Gerald McRaney. Also Lennie James plays a prominent role as Mr. Hawkins, a man who "just happened" to move into town and pay cash for a house two days before the bombs went off.
Is Hawkins a good guy or bad guy? What are the secrets in Jake's life, where has he been for the past five years? As the answers are unfolded, the story gets better and better.
Jericho lives for now. If you're not a fan, you owe it to yourself to check out one of the 2006-07 television seasons best kept secrets.
Friday, July 6th, 9:00 EDT.
:D
For more on Jericho, visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/
2 comments:
After a member of my family "turned me on" to Jericho, I became hooked. While I am NOT a member of CBS' apparent desired viewing audience (being female and just a touch over 47), I do enjoy the show and look forward to more than seven future episodes.
I admit to being one of the few, the proud... ooops, wrong line for here... I am one of the folks who watches Jericho and many other shows here online. Of course I absolutely, positively disagree with their choice of which main character got killed off in the season finale! Hey, I understand that there had to be major drama and someone important probably had to die in order for the show to maintain some semblence of realism, but I strongly feel that the choice was a poor one.
One does have to wonder though, where are the minds of the powers that be at all three major networks, to put their big draws on hiatus. As stated here, CBS did so with Jericho while ABC put LOST on hold and NBC took Heros on a break. Here's hoping that the story lines stay strong enough on all three in the new fall season, that I don't have find and stick with alternate programming.
eddyg, great points. I do know that NBC has announced that there will be no long hiatus on HEROES this season and CBS has learned the lesson too... hopefully they'll have enough success with the next seven original episodes for it to matter.
NBC has also found a way to plug the gap between seasons 2 and 3... yeah, they're planning that far ahead for HEROES... but having a six episode mini-series next "off season" where they will introduce new characters and then let the fans vote which one(s) make it to the regular season show! Like "American Idol" for super-heroes! :D
And thanks for being the elusive first commenter.
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