“Jericho” Fans Plan Pre-emptive Strike

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.