CBS Bombs Jericho... Again!

Flashback to one year ago: Jericho returns to the air after a terribly long winter hiatus, and the ratings do not return with it. The season ends with too many questions left unanswered, and too many Jericho fans wanting those answers. Then the announcement comes from CBS... Jericho is no more! Due to those low Nielsen ratings (which, as a side-note, is an arbitrary and out-dated system that does not tell thing one about the true advertising power of a television show), the television network decides that it is not worth it to bring Jericho back for another season.

So what happened next? Jericho fans swamp CBS studios with thousands of pounds of nuts, of course. In reference to a speech mentioned in a story about Jake Green's (Skeet Ulrich) grandfather, Jericho fans start a grassroots movement to save their show. The website NutsOnline actually had a Jericho special, where fans could order nuts and they would bulk ship these nuts to CBS studios. This huge show of support forced CBS to bring Jericho back for another season, but with one stipulation... The ratings have to increase or this will be the final season.

Back to the present. Jericho will air its series finale on Tuesday, March 25. The prehistoric Nielsen Ratings have not supported the passion Jericho fans have for the show, so CBS made the announcement on Friday that they are, once again, canceling Jericho. The problem with this decision is that the true money potential behind Jericho is in the ratings, considering it is one of the most watched shows on CBS's Innertube, the studio's online viewer, and a consistent seller on iTunes, with the season two premier selling 700,000 downloads. The WGA strike, which turned many people away from television for most of the period Jericho's short second season was on the air, did not help the all-important ratings.

As of writing this article, there are no NUTS campaigns circulating to save Jericho again, but the internet buzz is that CBS is shopping the show around to other stations, most likely cable channels. Fellow Associated Content Producer Maxx, has written on this topic in a little more detail, which can be seen in his article Jericho / Address Information & Fan Plan #2, which includes CBS executives' addresses. Luckily, fans immediate and strong reaction to the first cancellation may give more reason for it to be picked up elsewhere. Only time will tell.