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.
“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.â€Â
This is what I don’t understand. New viewers won’t matter unless they’re Nielsen families? Where do we find those?
Thanks for you article.
More importantly, what’s the point of new viewers if the show has only 8 episodes before its off the air!?
Also, Jane, if they know that 700,000 people “time delayed” the show. I would have to assume that they got that figure from the folks over at TiVo.
We need to change the way networks count viewers.
http://www.petitiononline.com/62951S/petition.html
What a joke! CBS, and the other networks need to get with the times. Not everyone who wants to watch a show will be there when it airs. It’s not that kind of world anymore. Don’t count on there being more than eight new episodes of Jericho, if we even get that.
Watch, CBS is going to pull a fast one and stick Jericho in THE WORST time-slot that they can find, then after a couple of episodes air to less than stellar ratings, they’ll yank it and say, “See, we were right!”
Dave M: they aren’t saying that these seven eps will be the last. They’re saying that they’ll be the next season, and more might follow if there’s good ratings.
But yes, everyone is correct. Nielsens are so outdated and incorrect it’s not funny, but the networks still choose to base so many of their decisions off the system. It’s mindbogglingly stupid.
Clearly we are in a transition phase in terms of technology and the ways people watch television shows.
The Networks and advertisers will eventually have to re-work their viewer formulas and add revenue schedules to better reflect these new realities. A rocky road ahead, and Jericho will not be the only show to get short shift in the interim.
I recorded many TV shows this year through my Comcast DVR Service. Are those programs “counted”? How about the CBS programs I watch on the Comcast free “On Demand” service which stores a month or more of popular CBS programs (CSI, Numbers, Survivor, etc.)?
For CBS to say “watch the broadcasts” (so we can count you) is a step backward, unrealistic, and counter to the efforts CBS itself has made to expand TV program views online, and through stored episodes on cable TV services like Comcast. I know that a month or more of my favorite CBS shows are stored in the Comcast “On Demand” feature now, so I don’t even bother to record those programs anymore when there is a viewing conflict. Are those viewings counted?
Times are changing. Fast.
“That coupled with a big decline in numbers for the spring block of the first season led CBS to initially pass on the show.”
Ummmm… might this be due to the “tactical” CBS imposed long delay mid season, which ended up backfiring on this and many other shows that tried it, causing some to lose interest in the show? I know I almost stopped watching because I stopped caring after so long a time, then dI ecided to watch again which I am glad I did.
I always find the “please watch it live” line by these networks. Just like what SciFi was pulling with Stargates. It doesn’t matter if I watch it live or not since I’m not a Neilsen family. And neither are 99.9% of the population out there.
These networks just don’t get it between the terrible low sampling and inaccurate Neilsen ratings to DVRs to the Internet.