united states left in limbo
tommyWifey’s gonna be upset.
I don’t watch many tv shows, but Jericho had a pretty good storyline (I paraphrase):
In the aftermath of a series of nuclear attacks on major cities in the US, a couple smaller towns survived, including a small, rural Kansas town called Jericho. The series began with a visible nuclear detonation of unknown origin over nearby Denver, Colorado, and a loss of power and modern communications, effectively isolating Jericho. Several themes addressed in the show regularly are the gathering of information, community identity, public order, limited resources, the value of family, and external and internal threats.
The first season of Jericho ended with the town in the midst of a battle with a neighboring village to control the farms (and food). Nationally, 4 or 5 “governments” had taken over various parts of the US, and it looked like they were each trying to control the entire country. Another civil war was imminent. I think.
I’ll never really know for sure - Jericho was canceled.
I know - no big deal - it’s just a show. And if there are not enough people watching, there’s not much you can do. But the WAY the show got canned just goes to show how really, really stupid the networks are.
It was getting decent ratings from its inception in September 2006 until they put it on hiatus in November. It averaged a solid 11.08 million viewers, and with all the web-extras and tie-ins, it was CBS’s most streamed show online. They replaced it with the popular comedy King of Queens, and planned to show the remainder of the Jericho series beginning in February.
At which point most of those those 11 million viewers had found something else to do. As you could expect, the couple million that did stick around are all voicing outrage.
At one time, the top three networks could do anything they wanted, and people would still tune in. Of course, that’s when those were the ONLY networks. Then came cable, then video games, then the internets - you know the story.
In this day of instant gratification, not many people are going to wait around for three and a half months for a story to continue. Yet those big networks continue to do what they want.
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May 18th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I feel like I wasted a TV year of my life! I’m bummed.
May 18th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Tommy:
Great post. I came into “Jericho” late, and really enjoyed the show. We had every reason to believe (from an entertainment news site standpoint) that the series was going to get a pickup Wednesday, but were saddened when the trades announced Tuesday it wasn’t happening.
I think this was the first show that both my mom and I enjoyed independently, and didn’t find out we both watched it until after the fact.
To be honest, however, I think the ratings erosion had more to do with its competition (it was going against “American Idol”-fueled programming, which it wasn’t at the beginning of the season) than the break. While breaks aren’t great, critically acclaimed shows can definitely hold their audience over long breaks (see: Battlestar Galactica).
But I’m with ya … great show, gone.
May 18th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Serialized tv shows, when done well, can tell much better stories than any movie, simply because of the amount of time they have to allow things to develop. Unfortunately, the short attention spans of fickle audiences coupled with the networks need for near instant gratification (shows cancelled after one or two airings) means you’re taking a risk of being left hanging any time you fall in love with one of these shows.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Great write up Dustin.
I can only imagine CBS will learn an unforgettable lesson when Jericho fans actually send in cans and bags of nuts to the executive offices. It’s probably the most original cancellation statement I’ve ever seen. Not sure if you caught this, but according to Post-Gazette TV Rob Owens, CBS has no plans to offer resolution. So it falls to the producers, who he says knew the show was on the bubble, but shot a cliffhanger anyway.