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« Today's News: Our Take
Jericho Boss Hopes to Return — But for Good
As first scooped by the Ausiello Report, CBS is pondering new life for Jericho, reportedly at mid-season and for eight episodes. But as many have since asked, for only eight episodes? Or, best case, for lots more? "The idea would not be to bring it for eight and out, but... with the hope that it would keep going," executive producer Carol Barbee tells the Los Angeles Times. Hurdles include rounding up the "surviving" cast, as well as solving some "logistical" puzzles. "[The new CBS drama] Swingtown was supposed to take over the same stages," Barbee explains, "so it's a lot about [finding] a schedule that works for all of us."
Originally, says the Times, CBS proposed a two-hour "wrap-up" movie, but Barbee "felt like that was doing it short-shrift. It's too big of a story."
And the big moral here? "Networks are going to have to look at numbers and who is watching their show and who is downloading their show in a different way from here on out," says Barbee. "They have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore and that the 18-49 demographic they're all so keen on is online."
UPDATE: Jericho has officially been picked up. See the Ausiello Report for details — and what the show's fans must do to ensure its longevity.
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Jun 6, 2007 12:22 PM
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So, let me see if I have this straight.
The show was cancelled with a lot of balls in the air and, after an unprecedented fan effort, CBS is going to give the show 8 episodes to wrap the story up. But the producer, if this quote is to be believed, is going to instead use those 8 episodes to make a play for a full renewal which means she probably won’t wrap up all the mysteries (because Jericho really isn’t a show worth watching without some mystery).
To me, this makes a case for not bringing shows back at all. If the producer can disregard the reality and still not resolve the open plot points than what is the point.
Also, I have to say this quote…
"Networks are going to have to look at numbers and who is watching their show and who is downloading their show in a different way from here on out," says Barbee. "They have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore and that the 18-49 demographic they're all so keen on is online."
Is just a little obnoxious. Now, I should say that I’m between 18 and 45 and I actually watched Jericho on my iPod so I’m exactly who she’s talking about but I don’t see how that’s at all relevant to the discussion. I wasn’t a nielson family before so what exactly is her point? Moreover, how do a few thousand people sending in peanuts prove that the 18-45 demo isn’t being fairly represented?
I hope the show does get its 8 episodes and I hope CBS forces her to resolve the storylines to give the fans some closure rather than playing to the unrealistic hope that the show will get a full renewal.
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Jun 6, 2007 12:47 PM
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I hope the networks ALSO learned a lesson about hiatus. Every show that took a multi week hiatus came back to low ratings. This might work for sit-coms, where there is no continuing story, but for shows like Jericho and Lost, it can be a make or break thing.
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Jun 6, 2007 1:20 PM
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I'm ok with 8 episodes - if indeed 8 episodes is all we get - provided we do get resolutions to all the plotlines.
But I want another season... after all, CBS almost engineered the ratings drop through their treatment of the show.
*fingers crossed*
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Jun 6, 2007 1:21 PM
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I won't bother to watch the 8 when they come back on. I watched the entire show from start until the cancellation so I'm done with it. They couldn't pay me to come back.
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Jun 6, 2007 1:39 PM
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They have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore and that the 18-49 demographic they're all so keen on is online.
I've been saying this all season long. The ratings can't be right. ALL the networks put their shows online for free and a lot of people have dvrs. To get any real ratings in this day, they need to figure out a way to get ratings from playing online and on dvrs within at least 3 days of the original airing (I'd actually like to see it be a week or to the weekend.) If I tape shows, that's usually the first chance I get to watch them.
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Jun 6, 2007 1:45 PM
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Maybe this season will be a lesson for them to not believe the ratings from the Nielsens anymore. Obviously the only Nielsens in existance belong to untrained monkeys.
I also hope they learned a lesson to not break shows between seasons. I'd rather a show be on for 5 months from start to finish than 4 weeks here, 2 weeks here and another 5 weeks here. It's SO annoying and I hope they never do that again.
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Jun 6, 2007 1:55 PM
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I'm glad that CBS is actually listening to its viewers (and that not all CBS programming has to be a procedural or reality).
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Jun 6, 2007 2:16 PM
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I hope the show does get its 8 episodes and I hope CBS forces her to resolve the storylines to give the fans some closure rather than playing to the unrealistic hope that the show will get a full renewal.
Couldn' disagree more. If given 8 episodes why would the producer assume that the show should end after that. I think that if Jericho does come back - that due to the publicity of the fans jericholives.com campaign, along with a decent spot to air the show, it will see decent if not good ratings. This show never had bad ratings. I think this show always had more viewers than any episode of Friday Night Lights on NBC (which I love by the way). This show was abused by the network with a long hiatus and then scheduled against Idol. This show was loved by its fans - just not the Nielsens.
Does anyone actually know someone who recently received a neilson box? I was contacted last summer and when asked if I had a DVR I was told that my profile did not fit into their survey. How acurate can Nielsen be?
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Jun 6, 2007 2:20 PM
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Now, I should say that I’m between 18 and 45 and I actually watched Jericho on my iPod so I’m exactly who she’s talking about but I don’t see how that’s at all relevant to the discussion.
I've been saying this all season long. The ratings can't be right. ALL the networks put their shows online for free and a lot of people have dvrs.
You're missing the bigger point. Ratings that come from iPods or online are irrelevant because they're commercial-free (or, at the most, with a single ad before each installment). Shows like Jericho are expensive to produce and entirely ad-supported. Even shows recorded on DVR's are usually played back without commercials -- and advertisers won't pay if no one views their ads.
I hope CBS decides to produce these 8 episodes (and yes, I'm hoping for more). At least we'll find out who won the war against New Bern.
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Jun 6, 2007 2:26 PM
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if it worked for Jericho I wonder if it will work for Veronica Mars since CBS owns the CW
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Jun 6, 2007 2:27 PM
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Yes, iPod shows are commercial free, but they cost at least $1.99 per episode to download. 1 million downloads equals $1.99 million in revenue (not counting the costs of putting them online, etc., which at the end of the day is not that much). Not to mention future DVD sales (and syndication, if it ever got that far). Don't forget that you can also have revenue from product placements -- not that I have seen such placement in Jericho episodes.
In this day and age, networks have other ways of making revenue besides advertisements. Nielsens only apply to ad revenue, which is why the networks spend too much time dwelling on those numbers and not looking elsewhere.
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Jun 6, 2007 2:36 PM
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I would love to see season 1 repeated right before the new episodes. CBS needs to do this for all the new viewers. The press that generated by the NUTS campaign I am sure will get some to watch and see what the fuss is about. BRING BACK JERICHO!!
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Jun 6, 2007 3:24 PM
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They can talk all they want about demographics, but as repeated above, they are not looking at the whole picture. I DVR Jericho sometimes if I am not home or something is up against it, but it always, always gets watched. And I may be 50 years old and female, but my 20 year old son watches with the same regularity and intensity that I do, and we were both bummed when Jericho was cancelled. They definitely do need a new way of looking at demographics and viewership, I have NEVER known anyone who is one of these so called "Neilsen" families!
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Jun 6, 2007 3:34 PM
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In this day and age, networks have other ways of making revenue besides advertisements. Nielsens only apply to ad revenue, which is why the networks spend too much time dwelling on those numbers and not looking elsewhere.
You are absolutely right (although I HATE product placement, such as the continuing Nissan Versa references in Heroes this season).
However, currently these other options are not enough to keep an expensive scripted show like Jericho going. The last estimate I saw was that all TV downloads combined on iTunes total about 1 million units per month. That means that Jericho, which is not even in iTunes Top 100, receives a tiny fraction of that total.
An episode of Jericho costs several million dollars to produce. An ad on Jericho costs $98,000. Shows don't usually go into syndication for at least 4 years, and DVD sales are important but unreliable. Unfortunately, there are no other sources of revenue that even come close to ad dollars for supporting scripted shows.
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Jun 6, 2007 4:00 PM
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