I was a nut sender, and I ...
Question: I was a nut sender, and I think that CBS' moving of
Jericho from Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET to Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET was a big mistake. I had to wonder why it ran
The Power of 10 rather than run the short season of
Jericho in the fall. I always thought it was a mistake to keep a show that was canceled on the shelf for nine months
and move it two hours later on a different night — in the same time slot in which every show that has occupied it since
Judging Amy went off the air has failed. Pairing it with
Big Brother was a dumb move as well. Also being a fan of
Boston Legal, I watched that show and recorded
Jericho for the first two weeks before
BL went off the air because of the strike. CBS was "nice" to bring the show back, but could they have brought it back in a worse way? I don’t think so.
Answer: CBS was damned if they did, damned if they didn't. If they'd put it on Fridays, where some of their shows work well with less expectations, and it had failed, CBS would have been bashed (unfairly) for putting it in a death slot. The second season of
Jericho was always intended as a midseason replacement, which already makes it an insult to some. I don't really buy that, but as it turned out,
Jericho was hurt by the fact that this midseason was impacted so fatefully by the strike, that viewing levels were depressed already, and that it didn't have original drama-series lead-ins on Tuesday to help it. (Although the strike also meant
Jericho went up several weeks against primarily repeat programming, which could have been a plus.) Bringing
Jericho back was always going to be something of a long shot. I don't really see any villains, least of all CBS, in its ultimate failure.
Reaction of another sort came from former
Jericho fan Mike L., who wrote (in part; it was quite a rant): "I am outraged at the creators of the series and not CBS. While I was not ardent enough to send any nuts, I was happy to hear that
Jericho would be back this season. However, the show was doomed from the opening night, not by its time period or its lead-in, but rather by the complete 180 the show's creators took with its story and theme. In Season 1, Jericho was pretty much a family oriented drama. There was a hint of mystery about the bombs that added some spice, but all of that seemed no more than an exciting backdrop for the struggle of a small town dealing with the aftermath of a horrific event. The stories were intensely personal and focused largely on character. Sometimes they were a bit trite, but mostly strong acting redeemed even the most simplistic of plot turns. And plot itself, by and large, was a very small part of the show. It a character-rich show. This season, however,
Jericho was a
24 wannabe. Dialogue became almost exclusively exposition. Episodes were all plot and no character development. Certain characters had their personalities altered substantially (especially the lead, Jake Green, who became a naive, whiny, ineffectual cipher), and the action elements of the show were as ham-handed and as poorly executed as I have ever seen. So take it from a strong
Jericho fan: This show was killed by its creators, not its network."
As previously discussed, the producers probably felt they had no option but to go this route, given the short-order renewal. Once again, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Still, regardless of the final outcome,
Jericho goes in the history books for its unexpected (however short-lived) resurrection.
