Jericho

[Ian]

I know we had at least a few folks here watching this show and I'm sure most of you were as disappointed as I was when the show was cancelled.

In case you haven't been following the stories, there has been a HUGE grassroots campaign to bring it back and now it appears as though it's worked.

Rumors on the web are hot and heavy that CBS is bringing Jericho back for an 8 episode run next season, with an option for more if the ratings improve.

Good news for us Jericho fans!!

[Seasonscraps]

WOW! That would be cool. DH loved this show and while I watched begrudgingly, I want to know what happened.


Thanks for the tip! I think someone I know on another message board works at CBS - I'll see if she knows anything.

[DREAMADREAM93]

Thank Goodness!!
I felt like someone shot my dog when they cancelled Jericho!
Its great to know that its comming back!

JOrdan :]

[Ian]

Thank Goodness!!
I felt like someone shot my dog when they cancelled Jericho!
Its great to know that its comming back!

Jordan :]

Well, it's just rumor so far. Nothing official has been announced, but even Jericho's producer has said that they are in talks to bring the show back. Doubt she'd say that publicly if it wasn't true.

By the way ... love the dog analogy! I felt the same way!

[Mr. Tom Morrow]

Thanks for the update hopefully it does come back.

It always seems the new show I enjoy gets the axe.

[Jen0610]

Once weekly DH and I have sent e-mails to CBS expressing our displeasure on their decision to pull Jerico. DH and 5 of the guys he works with threw all in together and send CBS a box of nuts. That campaign is working wonderfully, from all the info we have seen on it. Will be a good thing if they bring it back, even if it is a small number of episodes.

[Ian]

Yeah, I know ... I would be happy to just get some closure to that cliffhanger of an ending they had!

I want the show to be renewed for a full season, but at this point I'll settle for 8 new episodes and take it from there.

[Jen0610]

The people have been heard. YES, YES, YES, we got Jericho back!!!!!!!

Now all we have to do is get others to join or rejoin (those who lost interest with the long break last year) to start watching.

[Ian]

Just to be clear, here's what Jen is referring to ...

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 6, 2007

To the Fans of Jericho:

Wow!

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of “Jericho” for mid-season next year. In success, there is the potential for more. But, for there to be more “Jericho,” we will need more viewers.

A loyal and passionate community has clearly formed around the show. But that community needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available.

We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks.
At this time, I cannot tell you the specific date or time period that “Jericho” will return to our schedule. However, in the interim, we are working on several initiatives to help introduce the show to new audiences. This includes re-broadcasting “Jericho” on CBS this summer, streaming episodes and clips from these episodes across the CBS Audience Network (online), releasing the first season DVD on September 25 and continuing the story of Jericho in the digital world until the new episodes return. We will let you know specifics when we have them so you can pass them on.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of “Jericho” in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.

Sincerely,
Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment

P.S. Please stop sending us nuts!!

[Mr. Tom Morrow]

Nice !

[Ian]

“Jericho,” the little CBS drama that could, escaped from the jaws of TV death last season after being canceled and was revived after a huge outpouring of support from fans. It returns with its shortened second season at 10 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific) on Feb. 12. Although it’s only seven episodes, “Jericho” will likely be the first major network show to complete its full 2007-08 season because all the others have been hijacked by the strike. All seven “Jericho” episodes are filmed, edited and ready for air, so it will air without interruption.

[Jen0610]

Can't wait. DH is getting season one for Christmas, so we will be rewatching this before the next season starts.

[kakn7294]

Thanks Ian! My DH and oldest DD are looking forward to it. I only watched because they hijacked my tv!

[Ian]

Okay ... this is my last ditch effort to get my fellow INTERCOTees to watch this show.

It returns tonight at 10PM and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

If you didn't watch the first season (shame on you, by the way!) it is available on CBS's website and it's also out on DVD.

[Ruprect]

My wife just rolls her eyes but I am ready for new Jericho. I even watched some of the early (and not so good) episodes from season one last night on Sci-Fi just to get ready.

[BigRedDad]

I can't wait for it to start again. DVR is set to record the season again. I have been watching it on UHD the last couple of days.

[IloveDisney71]

I'm so glad to see it coming back! Me and my youngest DD got hooked on it and were sad when they said it was being pulled.

[Ian]

Thanks To the Fans, 'Jericho' Returns


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Carol Barbee won't soon forget May 15, 2007 -- the day she received the call that "Jericho" had been canceled. But it was the days that followed, while the show's executive producer was on vacation, that would become TV lore.

"It was getting phone calls telling me that something was up, and that the fans were angry, and it was like, 'Oh that's nice -- that makes me feel good that the fans are angry,' " says Barbee. "My brother was following it on the Internet, and he kept saying, 'No, no Carol, this is like a thing ... they're sending nuts!"'

Make that 40,000 pounds of peanuts. "Three days into my trip, I got an e-mail from (CBS Entertainment president) Nina Tassler saying, 'When you're back in town, we really need to sit down and talk because this is a huge fan revolt, and we want to figure out a way to make them happy.' "

About two weeks later, a second, albeit abbreviated, season of the small town post-apocalyptic drama got the green light. The first of the show's seven new episodes premieres Tuesday (10 p.m. ET).

"I don't think CBS really grasped that the show had a worldwide appeal," said blogtalkradio.com host Shaun Daily of Las Vegas, who is credited with initiating the nuts campaign, an idea he derived from star Skeet Ulrich's often-used expression -- the one-word lament: "Nuts" -- in the season finale.

"I meant for people to send the little packets of peanuts that they have on the airlines," he said, "but then it just blew up."

Fan protest is nothing new to TV executives, nor was this the first time CBS resurrected a show from the dead. In the spring of 1984, the network renewed "Cagney and Lacey" after a summer letter-writing campaign (and a series Emmy win in September 1983).

The nuts campaign, however, was unique. "It was the first time we were able to see an immediate and very engaged and very specific response to a show being canceled," says Tassler. " 'Jericho' was on the crest of what the Internet has come to show us is that you have an audience, the use of viral campaigns and how effective they are."

While numerous fans concede they TiVo "Jericho" or watch online, Tassler says loyalty counts on-air. "We certainly expressed to the fans our need to bring more eyeballs to the broadcast of the show."

"Jericho" did well when it premiered in the fall of 2006, but ratings slipped. Then CBS put it on a three-month hiatus and "it kinda killed us," Barbee says.

But with these episodes, it became about more than ratings or securing another season, "it was incumbent upon us to tell a great story for these people who saved the show," Barbee says.

A humility evident even among the cast on the Burbank set during a taping last September.

"The only reason most of us came back was for the fans," says Ulrich. "We wanted to make episodes for them because they certainly deserved it after all the effort they put in. I couldn't imaging turning tail on them after everything they'd done."

"We got to see the faces behind the forest," says co-star Ashley Scott, who has made appearances with the cast at Comic-Con and chats with devotees on message boards. " 'Jericho' is about people fighting for their lives, people fighting for what they believe in, and that's what the fans did. That's really exciting for me, and (the work) matters a little bit more."

Sacrifices were also made.

"It was different for different people, depending on what their initial contracts were," notes co-star Lennie James, "but everybody, in one way, shape or form, took a pay cut in order to come back to 'Jericho.' "

Not that he's complaining: "Everybody says it, and I've said it before and it's not been true, but it is really true now -- this is a fantastic place to go to work."

In the season opener, the drama picks up where it left off with Jake (Ulrich) and Hawkins (James) in a clash against a rival town, New Bern. The story then moves ahead four weeks after the fracas as a new national government is being established.

"There is also a visible change to the town, physically -- power has been restored, water and electricity are running. There's a brighter, more hopeful look, at least for the first couple of episodes," offers co-executive producer Karim Zreik, touring the Main Street back lot that was minutes from being demolished after the initial cancellation.

Sci Fi Channel will run a four-episode marathon from season one of "Jericho" the day before its second season premiere on CBS. If ratings are good, "Jericho" could be in a unique position for season three, what with the ongoing writer's strike putting the broadcast pilot season in limbo and fewer new developments in the pipeline.

Daily's not taking any chances.

"I've been all over the Internet and on my show trying to keep the fans interested," he says. "If we're going to get a third season, the fans have got to pull it through. It's up to us."

And lots more nuts.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[brad192]

Ooooooh! Finally! Though I wasn't one of the fans who sent nuts, I sure was cheesed off when I heard about the initial cancellation. At least there's SOMETHING new & different to watch tonight. Now if CBS could get us a few new episodes of The Unit, I'd be a very happy man!

[Ian]

I can't stress enough how important it is ... if you're a fan of this show, WATCH IT WHEN IT FIRST AIRS!!!

I know today everyone DVR's shows, or watches them On Demand, or whatever. But it seems like networks haven't picked up on that and they're not counting it into ratings yet. If we want a chance at a Jericho season 3, we have to watch it live on first airing!