Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:10:00
CBS to bring back Jericho? *UPDATED*
Jericho is coming back...maybe.
“Jericho" might not be nuked after all.
Hoping to take advantage of a devoted fan based—and the new multiplatform era—CBS is readying a plan to bring back the drama sometime next season. Net will likely order seven or eight episodes for broadcast.
Eye killed “Jericho” last month, leaving the show off its fall schedule and declaring it dead (Daily Variety, May 16). Normally, that would’ve been the end of things.
But fans of the show revolted, launching a massive online-based campaign to save the show. Their gimmick: Deluging the Eye’s Gotham and L.A. HQ with bags of… nuts. Nearly 20 tons, at last count, according to a Web site tracking electronic orders for the nuts. Protesters even found the cell phone number of a CBS exec, flooding him with calls and forcing him to change his number.
Nice. That’s gotta be the most successful “save this show” campaign ever, or at least since Farscape got that mini-series to wrap it all up.
CBS execs are no doubt hoping to take advantage of all the buzz surrounding the show’s demise—and likely revival—to help further reshape the net’s image away from the McGeezer web. Net’s just greenlit several new fall shows with very un-CBS themes (vampires, musicals, etc.), and saving “Jericho” fits right into that media gameplan.
What’s more, CBS no longer has to depend solely on primetime broadcast plays for its revenue. Between DVR playback ("Jericho" added nearly 10% more viewers when DVR figures were counted) and the now broadly accepted practice of streaming shows across the Net, CBS could try to make “Jericho” the poster child for a new business model.
Eye’s new CBS Audience Network, for example, distributes full-length episodes (and clips) to partners across the Net, from AOL to Veoh. It’s easy to see episodes of “Jericho”—perhaps with bonus footage?—serving as a key draw for CAN.
CBS wasn’t talking Tuesday, but industry insiders said final details with cast could be worked out by Wednesday or Thursday.
Awesome. From an LA times article:
“The idea would not be to bring it for eight and out, but to bring it back for eight with the hope that it would keep going,” Barbee said. “They’re making deals with the actors and there’s other logistical stuff to work out too. ‘Swingtown’ [a new drama] was supposed to take over the same stages so it’s a lot about the logistics of how to work out a schedule that works for all of us.”
The good news is, the sets were struck but not destroyed. They just need a new stage and new contracts and they’re back. If we lose a character here and there we’ll just have to understand, as long as Jake, Hawkins, Eric, Emily, Jonah, Stanley, Mimi, Gray and Dale are back, we can work with that. I’d even accept new actors in the roles of Emily, Dale, even Jonah.
Nice work, Jericho fans. This may be the beginning of a whole new way the networks look at viewership.
*UPDATE*
We did it - officially! See comments.
Posted by JimK at 01:10 PM on June 06, 2007
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#3 Posted by NewsweekReporter 
on 06/07 at 01:41 PM -
JimK, I’m a Newsweek reporter who would like to get your updated thoughts on Moore’s movie--how it has impacted your life, what are your objections to him and his arguments...Plus whatever else you want to talk about...Please drop me an email
Tony.Dokoupil@newsweek.com
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#1 Posted by working_man
on 06/06 at 08:44 PM -
It’s a done deal!