CBS' Jericho: A New Government, a New Flag ... A New Threat?

Imagine going through your day as usual, nothing out of the ordinary happening. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, your worst nightmare happens: you look towards the horizon and see a mushroom cloud appear out of nowhere, the telltale sign that a nuclear explosion was just detonated.

This is exactly what happened on the premier episode of CBS's Jericho, which airs Tuesday nights at 10 pm.

Jericho is a small, quiet town in Kansas. One evening, the residents saw the unmistakable view of a mushroom cloud after a nuclear bomb was detonated in Denver, Colorado. Suddenly, chaos erupts throughout the town. No one knows what is happening. Before they can try to find out what is happening, they have to take cover from a rainstorm that developed after the explosion because it could contain radiation.

After the storm, they realize that the explosion knocked out all of their communications. They have no way of contacting the outside world. They do know that the explosion in Denver was not the only one that occurred. One of Jericho's residents, a teenage boy, received a message from his mom on their answering machine. As she was leaving him a message, you heard her scream, an explosion and then the line went dead. His mom called from Atlanta, Georgia.

It is weeks before Jericho finally has contact with the outside world. But the outside world is not the same. Suddenly, the military is put in charge by a government running out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. A new government was formed here and consists of all of the states east of the Mississippi River. And the new government is very mysterious.

Suddenly, everyday life is changed. The new government is taking control of everything and telling citizens what they can do when. Martial law has been declared. Anyone who tries to find out what is really going on mysteriously disappears or ends up dead. Only a few of the townspeople in Jericho are quietly working behind the scenes to see what it really happening.

The second season of Jericho aired on CBS on Tuesday, February 12. On Monday night, February 11, SciFi premiered the first four episodes of season one of Jericho. They are continuing to play the older episodes on Mondays at 10 pm. Now anyone who is new to the show, like me, can catch up and learn what the show is all about, while keeping up with the new episodes on CBS Tuesday nights. All episodes of season one and two can also be viewed at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/.

Jericho stars Skeet Ulrich as Jake Green, Lennie James as Robert Hawkins, Ashley Scott as Emily Sullivan, Kenneth Mitchell as Eric Green, Brad Beyer as Stanley Richmond, Alicia Coppola as Mimi Clark, Esai Morales as Major Beck, Sprague Grayden as Heather Lisinski, Michael Gaston as Gray Anderson, Shoshannah Stern as Bonnie Richmond and Eric Knudsen as Dale Turner.

Jericho is created by Jonathan E. Steinberg, Stephen Chbosky and Josh Schaer. It is executed produced by Chbosky, John Turteltaub and Carol Barbee.