Ancient Cities

We all remember the catch phrase from the Season 1 finale of Jericho, “NUTS!”, and that was the battle cry for fans of the show who successfully fought to keep the show on the air. However it seems the execs over at CBS now only enjoyed the nuts but might put more of these one liners in the future episodes. Here is what the Metromix at the Chicago Tribune has to say on the new treats for Jericho:

“Now the creative minds behind the CBS drama have an action plan for the new, seven-episode season of the show: Work more edible, send-able treats into the show.

“We were joking among ourselves that we were going to try to insert into each show something that the fans could … go crazy about,” Lennie James, who plays Robert Hawkins, said at a recent panel about the show at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

“That’s bananas!” executive producer Carol Barbee added with a laugh.

As a general rule for shows with doubtful futures but passionate fan bases, “I highly recommend … inserting the name of … some sort of mailable food product in the season finale,” she said.

In all seriousness, though, James, Barbee and Skeet Ulrich (who plays Jake Green) said that they were shocked by the fan response that led to the show’s revival.”

For the rest of the article go over to Metromix to read the rest of the article.

This is exactly what fans of the show have been dying to hear, Jericho has been back on the air for a few weeks now and many of us have been dissapointed by the ratings. However Nina Tassler President of CBS Entertainment has a letter for fans of the show that shows that Jericho is actually headed in the right direction!

Dear Jericho Fans:

I have some good news to share, which is due in large part to your aggressive and effective outreach on behalf of “Jericho.”

Although the ratings for the repeat episodes on the Network have been modest (not uncommon for the Summer), our preliminary research indicates that 23% of the viewers tuning in did not previously watch the show. This adds up to more than two million new viewers for “Jericho.”

Just as encouraging, this research shows that one million viewers who left the show after the mid-season hiatus have returned this summer to catch up on the episodes they missed.

We still have a LONG way to go. But, I wanted to share this news and express our continued appreciation for your support of ” Jericho.” You have quickly and firmly established “Jericho” as the show with the most passionate and vocal fan community on television. Please keep spreading the word.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment

That is fantastic news and news that I think could propel the show through the summer. Remember to tune in tonight July 27th at 9pm to watch another episode of Jericho.

TVSquad.com has this column entitled Spoilers Anonymous which tells some of the latest rumors on the upcoming TV shows for Fall of 2007. They actually had a take on Jericho and its opening scene, and here is what they have to say:

“The season premiere of Jericho opens with Stanley and Mimi getting engaged.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Esai Morales will be joining the cast of Jericho for its upcoming half-season. Here is what Hollywood Reporter had to say:

“The actor has joined the resurrected CBS series in a recurring role, appearing in six of the seven episodes of the show ordered for midseason.

Morales will play Col. Hoffman, a career military officer and Iraq War veteran who has not heard from his wife since the day of the series’ fictional attacks.”

MSNBC has done a brilliant job this morning of making an article in regards to what fans of Jericho can expect from its return this season with its seven episodes. The actual article can be found here. Otherwise let me give you the brief of the long article.

1. Gerald McRaney’s Won’t Be Back: According to MSNBC: “McRaney’s death had always been planned, in order that his son, Jake, could complete a sort of Prodigal Son arc and end up taking over for his father. Many fans had hoped against hope that the show would find a way to bring McRaney back, but it doesn’t look good.”
2. Three Storylines Down to One: Before the surprise cancellation of the show, the writers had three storylines planned for the second season. MSNBC has this to say about the three storylines “They’d tell the story of Jericho, of course, but interweave them with scenes of the new Cheyenne, Wyoming government that’s trying to start up, and also scenes in New York City, one of the few large cities that survived the bombings.” MSNBC continues to discuss this with giving more insight into the new path with stating that “the season will begin with the Jericho-New Bern battle, and the Cheyenne government will show up to stop the fighting. The season will continue with the Cheyenners trying to help Jericho rebuild, and the town will “get back on the grid,” Barbee said. Lights, power and communication will be restored. “And laundry!” chimed in Skeet Ulrich, noting that by the end of the season, the jeans his character wore could practically stand up by themselves. “We were a really smelly cast,” added Lennie James.”
3. Future of Jericho: MSNBC kind of wraps up with what the writers and cast have to go through with this short season and the future of Jericho. “The seven episodes will be shot by the end of September, so the cast and crew won’t know by then if they’ll get another chance after the new shows air. Barbee and her writers, then, have to write the seven shows as if they were both a stand-alone arc that could be the show’s farewell, but also leave enough plotlines open and intriguing in case the network later calls for more.”

For the full article go to MSNBC.com to read it all for yourself!

The guys and gals over at SyfyPortal.com have been great at keeping up with the ratings for Jericho since its return. After a very strong first week showing on its return episode Friday the 6th of July, CBS put on a two hour special trying to reaquaint the Friday night audience what was and is the show Jericho. Here is how the show faired:

“The 9 p.m. showing of “Jericho” earned a 2.4 rating/6 share, according to Fast Nationals from Nielsen Media Research, finishing behind “Smackdown!” on The CW and a rerun of “Las Vegas” on NBC. Both shows also finished below a 3.0 rating, with “Smackdown” coming closest with a 2.9/6 while “Las Vegas” had a 2.8/6.

Last week, “Jericho” was able to garner a 3.2/6 with the rerun of its highly-marketed pilot episode, showing that even though its household rating may have dropped 33 percent, its audience share remained virtually the same. Slides for “Smackdown” and “Las Vegas” were less severe, but “Jericho” was able to finished ahead of “Standoff” on Fox and “Greek” on ABC.

In the 8 p.m. timeslot, CBS showed a recap episode it had used last season to bring the audience up to speed through the first dozen episodes of “Jericho,” which earned a 2.1/4, earning the final slot in that hour, according to Zap2it.”

So not the strongest showing for Jericho, and I am sure CBS was hoping for more, but then again it looks like all networks were having a down Friday. In general the time slot on Friday nights is a very volatile spot and it shouldn’t be interesting to see how CBS does through the summer.

According to TV.com, Jericho will be on for two consecutive hours this evening giving the series a full reinstatement back into TV. Here is what the guys and gals over at TV.com had to say:

“On July 13th, fans will get a double-dip of the show, with “Return to Jericho”–a recap of the drama’s first 11 episodes–airing at 8 p.m., and episode number 12, “The Day Before,” following at 9 p.m. The episodes will then air consecutively every Friday night throughout the summer. CBS did not mention plans to re-air episodes two through 11 in their entirety.”

So continue watching faithful Jericho fans, the ratings have to stay up!

BuddyTV is known for doing some pretty insightful writing into the deep realms of TV shows, and an example of this is there latest article on Jericho. After the ratings came out on last Friday’s return of Jericho many have wondered what exactly that means. Was the win, a big win? Does it even matter? Here is what BuddyTV had to say.

“Jericho fans swelled with pride after the Lazarus of primetime seized Friday night’s rating, but are the numbers a true win? In order for Jericho’s impressive holiday-weekend Friday night numbers to mean anything, they must belong primarily to new fans of the show, one factor that is impossible to gauge at this point.

If the six to seven million viewers that tuned into Jericho last Friday were mostly part of the group of fans that successfully convinced CBS to bring Jericho back, there may be little to be excited about.”

The thing about Jericho and its ratings are that they aren’t a bad thing. The rest of this article over at BuddyTV really rehashes the idea that the show needs to hit new viewers and in this editors opinion it has already done that. This campaign that was waged against CBS has brought more light onto the show then any other market campaign could have ever done. CBS was smart to bring it back, they show care for there viewers and hearts of gold for giving the fans what they asked for. Now the question arises can we ever feel comfortable? The answer is no, Television as we all know is cut throat, and if the ratings tumble at all it could be the end. So my answer to is Jericho ever going to be safe? And my straight answer is no, it will have to continually grow in order to stay afloat.

We all know by now that the finale of Jericho had some serious ramifications on the cast of Jericho, obviously Gerald McRaney who plays Johnston Green was killed, and thus the shows biggest name is out. However according to E Online, there has been an addition to the cast, here is what E Online had to say:

“We’re told the show welcomes a new character in the premiere: Col. Hoffman, a reliable and experienced military man, just might fill the void left by Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney). Apparently, he’s a good family guy, known for being faithful to his wife (who has been missing since the attacks) and fair to the men in his command. He plays a key role this year.”

We will continue to update as it sounds as though they are shooting Season 2 in around a month. So we should have a lot of updates coming around soon about the possible storylines where the show is going.

This is some great news for fans of Jericho, as its return to TV has made a good impact on the Friday night ratings. According to BuddyTV “The Jericho repeat drew a 3.2/6 rating, maintaining a strong lead for the CBS network at 9pm. The viewer count it earned was modest considering the standards of a summertime holiday weekend. Nevertheless, the numbers were enough to stump its competitors. “

I highly believe that this is a strong start for Jericho, Friday Nights are a tough time slot, especially on a holiday weekend, so the ratings when taking that into account actually fair quite well. Lets keep watching fellow Jericho fans!