CBS Gives ‘Jericho’ Fans Hope for Future Cliffhanger Resolution
But I’ll Believe It Only When I See It
Following Jericho’s undeserved cancellation by the Eye Network during last week’s upfront festivities, irate fans went nuts, sent nuts, and (Shocker!) CBS responded. I guess that’s what happens nowadays when proactive TV viewers band together in a concerted effort to let networks know that we’re no fools. Either stop rolling out these engrossing serial programs that require a monumental time investment—especially compared to the glut of crime procedurals and senseless reality shows that occupy so much of the small screen’s limited real estate—or stop canceling such shows just because they experience decreased ratings after clueless networks take them off the air for weeks at a time, right when they were just starting to gain dramatic and viewership momentum.
CBS’ purported reason for canceling Jericho was because of the series’ markedly lower ratings when the show returned to the tube on February 14, 2007, a whopping eleven weeks after the last new episode aired on November 29, 2006. Yet, note that the February 14 episode doesn’t even count as a full installment because it was one of those increasingly prevalent recap specials that networks resort to so that fans can at least remember if they even used to watch the show before it disappeared from the air. The gaps are that long sometimes.
In Jericho’s case, the first full post-hiatus episode premiered on February 21, an astounding three months—three!—after the previous original episode. What were CBS programmers and execs thinking? That perhaps viewers would mistake their network for basic cable, where such lengthy intervals are common? Uh-uh. And the last straw came when CBS axed the show only days after it ended its first season with a critical cliffhanger, gunfire accompanied by a black screen.
Fans understandably hit the roof, sending out a massive tidal wave of emails, postal letters, and, yes, nuts—in commemoration of one character’s defiant one-word response at the end of the finale, before the gunfire rang out—to the executives who make the big decisions at the network. The outpouring of disappointment and resentment was apparently so strong and unavoidable that CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler decided to leave a somewhat conciliatory, if not sufficiently contrite, response to faithful viewers on the series’ official CBS message board. It states:
We have read your emails over the past few days and have been touched by the depth and passion with which you have expressed your disappointment. Please know that canceling a television series is a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people at the Network, the production company and the incredibly-talented creative team worked very hard to build and serve the community for this show — both on-air and online. It is a show we loved too.
Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story.
And there we have it. I earnestly hope CBS delivers this potential closure posthaste. But given the network’s past behavior, I won’t hold my breath for a single second.
Related News: CBS’ 2007-2008 Primetime Schedule ‘Diverse and Daring’ … Not! | CBS Cancels ‘Jericho’ and Unceremoniously Alienates Legions of Fans | ‘Jericho’ Finale Promises Explosive Conflict and a Shocking Death
Jericho photo courtesy of CBS
