Source:
TheCinemaSource.com
Posted on: Sun, Jul 29, 2007 17:04:26
Written By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com
San Diego's Comic-Con featured a panel with the producers and stars of Jericho today, the last day of programming. First a little back story, because Jericho has, in less than a year, developed an interesting and tumultuous history. Premiering on CBS last September, it became a modest success (with an average of 11 million viewers) and stood in favorable contrast to the network's tired lineup of crime procedurals. One of the sci-fi-influenced serial dramas to pop up in the wake of Lost, it told the story of a small Kansas town that tried to protect itself and hunt for information in the wake of a series of nuclear attacks against major American cities that threw the country into near-anarchy.
In order to run as many episodes consecutively as possible, to maintain momentum, CBS decided to split the season into two halves: 11 consecutive episodes in the fall, followed by a hiatus, and then 11 consecutive episodes in the spring.
 Unfortunately, the gamble didn't work: upon returning to the air, Jericho's viewership dropped to a bit under 9 million per episode. (Similar hiatuses for other serials Lost and Heroes also saw fewer viewers upon return, so you can bet everybody's going to stay away from that tactic from now on.) One thing that did work, however, was a strengthened devoutness of Jericho's core fans thanks to a big Internet push during the hiatus.
Cut to mid-May. Ratings haven't improved, so around the time Jericho airs its season finale, CBS announces the show's cancellation. Sucks, right? The year earlier, similar fates befell serial dramas Surface and Invasion, and fans across the country were left hanging, unable to ever see a resolution to their stories.
In this case, however, Jericho fans weren't going to give up without a fight. Mobilizing in numbers that were previously unfathomable to CBS, the fans started sending packages of nuts to CBS in protest - a clever reference to a significant line of dialogue in the season finale. And they sent a lot of nuts.
|
|
