From SciFi.com, it seems CBS has cancelled Jericho for a second time.
Jericho is a television series about a small Kansas town and their struggle to survive after several nuclear bombs go off in major cities across America--including the capital.
Not just some cheap post-apocalyptic Mad Max clone, Jericho had characters with depth that you really cared about. There were always plenty of plot twists and turns leaving you always wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, and how it's all going to turn out.
The first season took a hit when CBS took it off the air for several weeks (as networks often do with shows these days), and it never recovered all it's viewers. So at the close of the last episode of the first season, as an neighboring town attacked Jericho, CBS cancelled it.
The cancellation was cancelled later that summer as fans sent some 40,000 tons of peanuts to the network in protest (in the closing scene, when the attacking town asked Jericho to surrender, the main character uttered a single word he'd heard his grandfather tell him Gen. Anthony McAuliffe had said in a similar situation during World War II: "Nuts!")
Due to the show being cancelled, then brought back mid-summer last year, it got a late start at production, making it late to return to television, coming back in early 2008 instead of late 2007 as most shows did. I think this again hurt it, as many viewers had no idea when to look for it,or found other shows to watch in the meantime.
Despite the fact that Jericho's short second season was as good as the first, CBS is giving it the coup de grace again, theoretically for good this time.
It's too, too bad. Shows like Jericho are rare. Not full of smut and sexual innuendo, with interesting characters and a great story.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Jericho Cancelled (Again)
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3 comments:
It was confirmed tonight, on Shaun o'Mac's radio broadcast, that the show’s production company will be trying to find another home for Jericho. Most likely they will be looking at cable networks.
Gwen
http://www.jericho-kansas.com
That's great news, Gwen. Thanks! I hope they succeed.
There have been other shows that have moved to other networks. JAG went from NBC to CBS and enjoyed many more years at CBS. And Stargate SG1 went from Showtime to Sci-Fi successfully. Hopefully Jerich will succeed, too.
It'd be a shame to see such an all-around good show come to an end this quickly.
The question is, will a cable network be able to pay the actors what a "big three" network can? Doubtful. With that in mind, would the actors be willing to take a significant pay cut just because "Jericho" is a wonderfully written and acted story.
While I am wholeheartedly disappointed, I'm not surprised. I hope this has a happy ending, but what we did the first time was amazing enough. The only chance at survival now is another network picking it up, and somehow keeping the major characters on board.
Tough sledding, I'd say.
Scott on Cape Cod
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