Are Jericho fans the new Browncoats? 

Certainly the two fanbases share the same passion for their shows and the dogged persistance to make sure their favorite series won’t be relegated to a passing answer in a future edition of Trivial Pursuit.

Twice-cancelled by CBS, Jericho’s fans aren’t giving up on the hope of seeing their show return on another network.  Right now, the big target is cable’s SciFi Channel, who recently picked up syndicated repeats of the first two seasons. 

But Jericho fans don’t want to just see the same set of episodes replayed over and over again.  Instead, they’re aggressively pursuing a third season.  The most recent push is a billboard located in Studio City, California, about a mile from the NBC/Universal lot.  Coincidentally, NBC/Universal owns the SciFi Channel.

The billboard shows a “for sale” sign and states that millions of loyal fans are looking to follow the series to its new home.  The billboard contains a link to the campaign’s web-site at www.jericho4sale.com and includes a phone number to contact the CBS/Paramount studios, the producers of Jericho. 

One fan even took video of the billboard being erected and posted the footage to the YouTube.

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First net savvy, intelligent SF fans inundated CBS with 40,000 pounds of peanuts after CBS execs canceled “Jericho.” They got their inspiration from the lead character, Jake Green’s response to a call to surrender from a stronger force that was rising against the small Kansas town. That major sign of protest on the part of fans got them a shortened second season which just ended. Now comes the next wave to get some other network or cable station to acquire the rights to the show and put out a third season of this fan favorite that won’t go down easy.

JerichoNet2 has issued this new call and challenge with the press release issued below, to see “Jericho” live to fight another day and is using the last symbol seen as the camera faded to black on the last episode of the series, the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag proudly flying over city hall as sign of rebellion against those who would, once again, try and destroy that town and its residents.

“How does it feel to be part of history? Don’t Tread on Me!” It’s the new battle cry of the next Jericho fan revolution. On March 22nd, CBS once again canceled Jericho, and within minutes, the fan efforts to solve the problem had kicked back into action. CBS’ serial drama Jericho, originally debuting on September 20, 2006, had been canceled once before, but the network resurrected it after the fans paid homage to Jericho character Jake Green (portrayed by actor Skeet Ulrich) uttering “Nuts!” to a request for surrender during the heat of battle. This line inspired a fan protest involving 40,000 pounds of nuts being shipped to CBS, forcing the network to reconsider its decision and to agree to a seven-episode Season 2.

According to CBS, Nielsen ratings had not been high enough this time around to encourage the network to buy into a third season for Jericho, leading to the show’s second cancellation before the March 25th airing of the seventh and final episode with had been shot with two alternate endings: a cliffhanger if picked up for another season, and an open-ended, show-ending conclusion to the seven episode arc storyline. CBS aired the latter version, and fans, deeming it also to be a cliffhanger itself, were inspired to begin the fight again to preserve Jericho for another round of storytelling.

Rumors had already begun circulating that Jericho’s Executive Producer Carol Barbee had been already ‘shopping’ the show to cable networks – where Jericho’s ratings, considered sub-par by CBS, would be stellar elsewhere. According to Barbee and other sources close to Barbee, the SCI FI and CW networks continue to be possibilities for picking up Jericho. Fans have now sprung into action, currently sending e-mails and letters and making phone calls to both networks.

Jericho fans – well-versed in their abilities to make a difference through efforts involving over $20,000 in donations to the Greensburg, Kansas, building fund, DVD shipments to troops overseas, and an affiliation with Project Homefront – are now refocusing their endeavors toward an organized multiphase effort to win a new home for their favorite show. They also have set up an alternate online rally point in anticipation of CBS’ Jericho Web site eventually going dark.

For more information about Jericho’s latest fan revolution, or to learn how you can offer your assistance and your voice to making history again by finding Jericho a new home, please log onto www.jerichonet2.com/board to check out the New Save Jericho Campaign details for addresses, contact numbers, and ongoing efforts to give Jericho new life.

Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)

If you failed to catch last night’s series finale of “Jericho” then you missed an opportunity to see what dramatic television should be all about.

The show that sparked a massive uprising by fans last year after CBS decided to cancel it after only one season, returned with a shortened second season, only seven episodes, but more than made up for its lack of quantity with a level of quality writing, directing, producing and acting that hasn’t been witnessed in primetime, except for those rare exceptions like “Journeyman,” “Firefly” or “C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation.” And, like “Jericho,” two out of the three of those AAA+ shows were canceled without so much as a thank you by their networks.

“Jericho” ended on the same kind of high note that Kevin Falls gave to the final episode of “Journeyman” last season. Executive producer Carol Barbee can be very proud of her effort and she deserves a gold star for keeping the show, its actors and crew on top of their game throughout, knowing that this would be it, at least on network television, for the series.

I won’t tell you anything about the final episode because I don’t want to spoil it for those who have yet to see it, but just let me say, it doesn’t get much better than what millions of fans witnessed last night.

And, the great thing is, even though it didn’t end on a cliffhanger, Barbee left it open enough for its continuation by some other network or new media format…..And that, is a story for another day.

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

The second season finale of “Jericho” airs tonight at 10 p.m. EST on CBS and while CBS has given the show the axe for a second time, fans of the post-apocolyptic thriller shouldn’t lose hope that this will be the last time they’ll see the series.

Executive producer Carol Barbee confirmed that there are negotiations in place with some cable networks to pick up the series for a third season.

“I can’t really say [much] about specifics, and, … partially, it’s because I’m not the one having those conversations,” Barbee said. “[CBS] Paramount [Television, which produces the show,] has been pursing it, and our agents have been into that, so, you know, I am pushing those people and coming up with ideas to have those people pursue.”

There were several ideas that have been floated, and there was some interest, but we’ll have to see,” she said. “It wasn’t something that could be sewn up before we were going to air the finale. … It would have been better had we been able to announce one with the other, but it just didn’t happen that fast.”

The cast and crew were informed of the cancellation last week and CBS has chosen the alternative ending for the series to air tonight. There were two endings–one that would involve a cliffhanger to lead into the third season and another that offered fans some closure while offering hints of where season three could go. CBS will air the “closure” ending tonight.

And should the show not get picked up by a network, there is hope in other avenues of new media distribution.

“There’s definitely an Internet series to be had, and we always talked about a graphic novel, and … a movie,” Barbee said. “I mean, there are lots of things that I could easily see as a way to continue the story.”

There will be a few hurtles to jump. Currently actors and production staff have been released to pursue other projects. In addition, the sets have been dismantled on the backlot used to film the series.

No amount of fan letters, emails, phone calls or campaigns would make CBS execs listen this time around and give Jericho a full third season, so don’t expect a cliffhanger next week when the series ends its run on the eye network.

The excuse given by the honchos at CBS is the show simply couldn’t generate large enough ratings beyond its ambitious and energetic fanbase. In TV talk that’s no new viewers added to generate ad revenues.

It matters not that “Jericho” was the most downloaded show in the network’s history, or seen by a huge share of the DVR audience, because until networks and advertisers can find a way to find a consistent way to make money off of those formats, their huge numbers mean nothing to them.

Next Tuesday will be the final time anyone will get to see a new episode of “Jericho” on CBS. It will be interesting to see how they wrap it up. Carol Barbee, the show’s main producer, stated earlier at the beginning of this shortened season that two finales were shot, one with a cliffhanger, in case the skein was picked up for a third and one that gives satisfactory closure for its dedicated fans. Looks like those fans will be getting the latter on Tuesday.

“Without question, there are passionate viewers watching this program; we simply wish there were more,” said CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler. “We thank an engaged and spirited fan base for keeping the show alive this long, and an outstanding team of producers, cast and crew that went through creative hoops to deliver a compelling, high-quality second season.

“We have no regrets bringing the show back for a second try. We listened to our viewers, gave the series an opportunity to grow, and the producers put a great story on the screen. We’re proud of everyone’s efforts.”

Of course will this placate fans into not drowning CBS in more peanuts? Probably not!

As fans of SF and related genre, we can expect to see more of this kind of axe-wielding as long as networks and advertisers continue depending on the outmoded, and outdated Nielsen system. If there was ever a time when this has become more apparent it’s now with quality, intelligently written and perfectly delivered shows like this one or “Firefly,” “Drive,” “Dresden Files, “Journeyman” and “Blood Ties” being kicked to the curb because programmers can’t get out of the crusty mid-20th Century with their ratings formula.

“Jericho” may just have one saving grace, its producer Carol Barbee. She has stated on more than one occasion that she will continue to work hard and endeavor to fine a different outlet for new episodes of this show, either on another network, such as the SCI FI Channel or one of the other new media formats.

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

Last season, “Jericho” fans bombarded CBS with tons of nuts to get their favorite series back on the air after it was pre-maturely cancelled.

This time around, fans aren’t waiting for the renewal or cancellation announcement to mobilize. With three weeks left in the second season and the overall ratings for the show shrinking, fans are campaigning now to CBS to keep the show for a third season reports SyFy Portal.

The biggest difference this time is fans are not being asked to bombard CBS with nuts. Instead, the fan-based campaign focuses on “Jericho’s” popularity in alternative distribution nodes like the Internet and timeshifted viewing, which grows the live audience by more than 20 percent according to releases issued by CBS.

The campaign is being facillitated by fan-forum member who goes under the screen name of Shumi. In an open letter to CBS, Shumi said, “With ‘Jericho’ you succeeded where your competitors frequently fail — you brought viewers back to network television,” Schumi said. “You did that by taking a chance on a little show that was different and offered more than the usual fare of recycled drama plots, or mindless games shows and reality TV. But what you brought back was a new viewer, the viewer of tomorrow.”

Shumi’s goes on to say that CBS is passing up a “lucrative opportunity” with the network’s “online opportunities.”

One hurdle facing the campaign, according to SyFy Portal, is that many of the claims made by Shumi are difficult to back up with hard data and facts, which could ultimately sway network execs to keep or axe the show.

However, it can be said that a politely worded letter to CBS execs couldn’t possibly hurt the struggling series’ chances for a third-season.

CBS may not have done a good enough job getting the word out about “Jericho,” its famously uncanceled show’s return. While Tuesday night’s season two premiere fared better than the first-season finale, it was still off from the show’s first-season average and finished second in its new timeslot.

The show’s second season, which debuted this past Tuesday on CBS, averaged a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating in the 10 p.m. Tuesday slot, according to Nielsen overnights, up 19 percent over last spring’s finale, when it aired at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

However, that was still 11 percent off the show’s 2.8 average last season and down 22 percent from a 3.2 for its first-season premiere. “Jericho” finished very close behind a repeat of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in the timeslot, though its rating did remain steady from its first to its second half hour and it did come in second place overall for the night…not really too shabby considering CBS again did little on its own to promote the show during prime time over the last few weeks before its return.

The show was revived last spring after its initial cancellation following a campaign by rabid fans that resulted in CBS being buried under 20 tons of peanuts. CBS will issue its verdict on a possible third season sometime after the 3rd or 4th episode of this shortened 7 episode season.

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

CBS yesterday announced that the second season of “Jericho” will begin on February 12, 2008.

The series will air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST for its seven-episode second season. CBS will lead into the post-apocalyptic series with the show that some see as one of the signs of the upcoming apocalypse, “Big Brother.”

Fans of “Jericho” helped save the show with a campaign to CBS earlier this year. Fans sent in 40,000 pounds of nuts to the network to show support for the show, leading to its return.

The producers were given a seven-episode season to complete the series’ on-going storyline. However, producers have said that while they’ve compacted their plans for a second-season story arc, they don’t see these as the final episodes for the show.

Producers are hopeful the ratings may be enough to convince CBS to give the show a full third season or extend the second season.

Our friends and partners over at TVGuide.com have given us some exclusive stills from the set of season two of the highly anticipated return of “Jericho” to CBS. We can now share those with all of you here on Slice of SciFi. The big question on the minds of fans is..”now that CBS has cancelled “Viva Laughlin” will ‘Jericho’ be coming back sooner than expected?” Stay tuned to Slice of SciFi and TV Guide.com. The minute we know, you will know too!

To see an enlarged picture just click on each image:

In a scene from the first episode,
“Reconstruction”, Jake (Skeet Ulrich)
and Colonel Hoffman (Esai Morales) have
much to discuss.

One of the show’s executive
producers Karim Zreik (left)
discusses an upcoming scene
with Ashley Scott and
Skeet Ulrich (right).

Skeet Ulrich (left), Clare Carey
and Kenneth Mitchell (right),
take five on the Jericho set.

Pick up the October 29 issue of TV Guide for more insider info on Jericho! And don’t forget to stop by TVGuide.com for the latest viewing schedules for this and all your other favorite genre-related shows. Slice of SciFi is just a click away from every sci-fi and genre-related listing on TVGuide.com.

[Pictured are: Karim Zreik (co-executive producer), Skeet Ulrich, John Turtletaub (executive producer), Carol Barbee (executive producer), Jon Steinberg (co-creator/producer), Dan Shotz (co-executive producer) and Kenneth Mitchell at Hollywood hotspot Crimson on Tuesday, Oct. 2]

The “Jericho” cast celebrated the complete first season of CBS’s fan-fueled hit released on DVD by CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment on Tuesday, October 2, 2007. The campaign to save “Jericho,” a compelling drama about what happens to residents of a small town in Kansas after a nuclear attack, is already Hollywood lore: Fans sent more than 40,000 pounds of peanuts — a reference to the final line spoken by “Jericho’s” hero in the season finale — to CBS network executives and convinced them to renew the show for a second season. Now, fans can save the show again on DVD.

“Jericho” stars in attendance included Skeet Ulrich (Jake Green), Kenneth Mitchell (Eric Green), Sprague Grayden (Heather Lisinski), Alicia Coppola (Mimi Clark), Brad Beyer (Stanley Richmond), Bob Stephenson (Jimmy), Clare Carey (Mary Bailey) and Ashley Scott (Emily Sullivan). Executive Producer Jon Turteltaub was also in attendance along with executive Carol Barbee and co-executive producers Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik.

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At a recent news conference “Jericho” executive producer Carol Barbee, said she was forced to try and squeeze the storyline that would normally take a full season into just seven episodes, and she is pleased with the overall outcome of the effort.

If the show, which fans successfully “encouraged” the CBS Network to bring back for an abbreviated Season Two had been fully renewed then we would have seen the show’s characters begin to branch out of the small Kanasa town and begin interactions with New York City, which was one of the few major big cities lucky enough to escape a terrorist nuclear attack; fans would have finally gotten to see the newly established United States government heads now located in Cheyenne, Wyoming and a few other undisclosed locations.

“The story we pitched to them for season two was going to take place in three different locations—Jericho, this new Cheyenne government, and coming from New York, which survived,” Barbee told journalists huddled around her at this year’s Television Critics Association press tour. “When we got the short order, we said, ‘OK. We’ll focus on Jericho.’ So we’re telling that story, and, yes, we’re still burning through more story than we would normally, because it would have been a 22-episode arc, and now it’s seven, but I think that’s going to be very satisfying to the fans, because it’s going to go like that.”

“What you see now in one episode, ideally, would have taken two or three to develop, and that’s just the nature of how we’re going to have to work for a little bit,” stated series headliner Skeet Ulrich, who plays Jake Green in the series. “So it’s going to be interesting. But the script still, in itself, stands on its own, and it’s really compelling. And as the arcs were laid out to me, the seventh will blow away the 22nd in terms of cliffhangers.”

Cliffhangers? Is Skeet hinting at a possible full return either on CBS, another network, or quite possibly some other venue such as DVD, film or the Internet? Earlier this month Barbee had suggested that she was so overjoyed at the fan response for its return after the show’s cancellation that she was ready and willing to farm the show out to someone other than CBS, and was also willing to look at options other than network television for getting the show back out there in front of the public.

[Pictured above are {from left to right} series regulars Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James and exec. prod. Carol Barbee]

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“Jericho” will return tonight, Friday, July 6 for rebroadcasts from the first season of the series that literally brought the nuts back into Hollywood. After the show was cancelled by CBS earlier this year fans got in an uproar and flooded the LA and NY offices of CBS with over 40,000 pounds of peanuts, bringing the studio to their knees begging them to stop and promising a return in the network’s 2007-2008 mid-season with 7 new episodes.

The network decided to bring back several episodes of Season One to measure audience response to see if the show might be salvageble for more than just 7 episodes. So, for the remainder of the summer catch up with the series and keep your fingers crossed for the possibility of more in some form or other down the road.

“Jericho” is the name of a small Kansas town and the story follows the lives of its residents and their survival in the wake of a nuclear explosion. It airs tonight and every Friday during the summer (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT).

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

Obsessed fans and several thousand tons of nuts brought back the CBS drama “Jericho” for seven episodes to wrap-up the series.

But it appears that producer Carol Barbee has plans for the show to continue beyond those seven episodes.

“We are not closing this story out,” Barbee told Broadcast and Cable. “We have a story to tell. It’s a really rich story, and we’ve got it mapped out for quite a while. The network suggested doing a two-hour movie to wrap up this story. We weren’t in any way interested in closing it down.

“When CBS came back to us, they said, “We only have time and space on our sound stage for you to do a limited number of episodes.” So we’ll do those with the intention that we’ll be back.”

Barbee also talked about her gratitude to the fans for their zeal in bringing the show back to the airwaves.

“I knew we had a very loyal and engaged audience,” she said. “I was surprised by the volume and incredible pressure that they kept up, the way it snowballed and the scope of it. I had no idea how it was going to turn out. And it was so gratifying.”

Barbee also took a chance to deliver a few thoughts on CBS’s reaction and the networks handling of the show’s scheduling last year.

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Fans and newbies alike will get a chance to check out some of the episodes from Season One of “Jericho” this summer. Here is the official CBS press release that explains it all.

JERICHO, CBS’s drama about how residents of a small, peaceful, Kansas town band together to survive in the wake of a nuclear explosion, will return to the Network beginning Friday, July 6 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Rebroadcasts of episodes from the first season will air in the Friday, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period for the remainder of the summer.

JERICHO, which last week received a seven episode mid-season order following an impassioned display of fan support, will return on July 6 with a rebroadcast of the pilot episode. On July 13, CBS will present back-to-back broadcasts beginning with “Return to Jericho” (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), which recapped the first 11 episodes, followed by episode 12, “The Day Before” (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), which launched “Jericho’s” spring return.

The remaining summer broadcasts will consist of episodes 13–22, in which tensions continue to escalate between Jericho and the neighboring town of New Bern as they battle the Kansas winter, dwindling resources and the uncertainty of a new world. The citizens of Jericho must now find a way to unite against these hardships, working together to preserve their community and their way of life as they prepare for an all out battle for survival in the season finale.

(Read more…)

Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

The fan campaign to bring back “Jericho” worked. Now CBS has a request for fans of the show–watch it when it’s on.

In a story published in the New York Times, president of CBS Entertainment Nina Tassler said, because CBS finances its shows based on measures of viewership of regularly scheduled broadcasts, “it’s of primary importance.”

“We want them to watch on Wednesday at 8 o’clock,” or whenever CBS schedules the return of the series later this year, Ms. Tassler said. “And we need them to recruit new viewers who are going to watch the broadcast.”

CBS is hoping to change the viewing habit of fans of the show. A report by the head of network reserach, David Poltrack, showed that over 700,000 households watched “Jericho” on a time-delay. And while this number is on par with other big time-delayed shows like “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI”, the Neilsen ratings for “Jericho” weren’t there. That coupled with a big decline in numbers for the spring block of the first season led CBS to initially pass on the show.

The series is also one of the most popular shows viewed on-line. It ranks third overall in shows viewed on-line–behind “Heroes” and “Ugly Betty.”

“Clearly there was an audience of people who were making time to watch the show however they could,” Poltrack said.

Rumors of “Jericho”’s return began to surface Monday as CBS scrambled to seize the momentum the show was generating. The show is produced by CBS-Paramount, which raised some questions about if the show was brought back, where would it be filmed. The soundstages where “Jericho” was filmed were designated for another show, “Swingtown.” The studio decided to bring back Jericho, with filming of the seven episodes set to begin the first of July. The soundstages will then be used for for “Swingtown,” which is produced by “Jericho” executive producer Carol Barbee.

Barbee has agreed to stay on “Jericho” an an executive producer.

One aspect of the return of “Jericho” is a cut in the budget. This could mean there won’t be as much location filming done in the second season as there was in season one. Barbee said it was one of the concessions that had to be made to revive the series. The budget cuts could also mean more limited storylines and fewer recurring guest-stars making appearances.

Lennie James, the actor who plays Hawkins, said he believed the revival of “Jericho” would cement the idea that the traditional Nielsen ratings “are going to become a more and more old-fashioned notion of monitoring television.”

CBS executives, however, are not so certain. Ms. Tassler’s message was more of forming “a marketing partnership” with online viewers and fans who record the show, one that would result in their “bringing more eyeballs to the network” and its traditional broadcasts.

For more on Jericho’s historic return to television, listen to this week’s Slice of SciFi Show #113 on June 13.