Deluge of peanuts brings back 'Jericho' TV show

An online protest involving 20 tons of peanuts delivered to CBS Entertainment in New York and California has succeeded in bringing back the television show Jericho, which the network canceled last month.

In an online announcement Wednesday afternoon, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler called the online outcry a "probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series" and said CBS has ordered seven more episodes of the show for mid-season.

"We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grassroots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks," Tassler wrote. (Previously aired episodes are available on iTunes and TV.com, which is owned by News.com publisher CNET Networks.)

Jericho is set in a post-apocalyptic Kansas town that survived, through an accident of geography, atomic explosions that lay waste to major cities including Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Denver.

The show centers on the perils that the Green family and other Jericho townspeople face in a world without electricity or a functioning central government. Food is scarce, life is harsh and organized gangs and government thugs (it's difficult to tell which is which) roam the Midwest.

The show aired opposite the highly popular American Idol and ranked 48th overall in terms of prime-time viewers.

And the nuts? That's a reference to the final episode, in which laconic hero Jake Green repeats the epithet made famous a half-century ago when General Anthony McAuliffe rejected a request ("Nuts!") to surrender to the Germans.

Fans irked about the series' cancellation signed up with NutsOnline and solicited contributions. By the end of the day Wednesday, $54,820 worth of orders were shipped to CBS totaling more than 40,000 pounds--something like 8 million peanuts.

Other online protests have involved Star Trek Enterprise, Joss Whedon's Angel (a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff), and the critically acclaimed but short-lived Arrested Development.

[cchenoweth6]

48th? Where do they get these ratings?

I have lots of friends who watch this show.

How could there be 47 better shows? CBS is "Nuts" to get rid of such a popular show. More and more people are learning about it and checking it out.

I can understand that the show might scare weaker minded individuals. It is a possible future and is a very interesting story.

[phrogdriver71]

Realism

This show is so low because the producers are to cheap to fix the
little stuff. Heck, they can't even make the walkie-talkies not
sound like pre-recorded messages. Little thing like this don't
compare to other shows that make an effort......i.e. Lost, 24, Prison
Break, etc. Look at Fox's "Drive"...many people were complaining
about the on the road scenery resembling California and not that of
South Florida where the race actually started.

[chuck_whealton]

Re: 48th? Where do they get these ratings?

I'd have to agree with you. I've seen too many decent shows cancelled to believe that the ratings are accurate.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com

[pjianwei]

It took only $54k to bring it back?

Thats a puny sum for the producers to do it. If I am the producer or the break out star from a soon to be canned series, i would just pay $100k to avoid being canned.

[umbrae]

Think again...

I think it was more of the shear number of peanuts that got the message across. It didn't have anything to do with the money.

[kmomrik]

Sad...

What I think is a shame is not that this show was being cancelled because its debut was poorly timed by CBS, but that people actually contributed $54,000 to have their favorite show not get cancelled. I hate to say it, but that makes us (Americans) in general look pretty bad... There are still people in the New Orleans area that are without homes, there are people on the street not knowing where their next meal will come from, but people are willing to donate money so that a TV SHOW!!! does not get cancelled.

I am saddened.

[inachu]

Huh?

I don't even know what the TV show about...
More than likely the bad time slot it got.

[rgoldman14]

Jericho

The reality is that Jericho opened in September to very high ratings. Then ... the dreaded long delay between new shows ... people moved on and ratings never came back. The "24" idea is still the best. No breaks, no re-runs.

[wratbatblue]

Sad, But True

There is a huge variety of programs available in TV and cable, the demand for instant gratification is higher than ever before, and viewers' attention span is roughly that of a petulant 5 year old. I don't understand how the networks think they can still afford the gaps and re-runs. The outcry about the cancellation of "Jericho", and its result, give me hope that the networks might reverse that trend and that there are still intelligent TV watchers around.

[deaduser]

Another world problem solved!

Obviously the fans of Jerichoke have nothing better to do with their lives.

[Ashton]

Heavy peanuts

Eight million peanuts with a weight of 40000 pounds looks like some big peanuts!!! Weighing 200 pounds each. I have never seen one that big.
J.

[TxTodd]

Check your math Ashton....

40,000 lbs/8 Million = 1/200th of a pound. Taking the $54,820 value, that would make a pound of peanuts $1.37, which isn't to bad of a price either.

[cybervigilante]

Hope They Et Em!

I wonder if anyone actually ate those peanuts. It would be a shame if they were just thrown out - but bureaucracies are stupid like that. They could donate them to a food bank. Or send them to me. I've been living on peanuts for years ;')

[Dolphinbuddy--2008]

Re: Heavy peanuts

So you put that into your calculator and decided that the peanuts
weighed 200 pounds. You didn't perhaps think to yourself, "Hey,
that doesn't sound right, maybe I should try that again!"

[RWallaceJD]

Canceled shows. like JERICHO

The CNET article states: Other online protests have involved Star Trek Enterprise, Joss Whedon's Angel (a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff), and the critically acclaimed but short-lived Arrested Development.

But don't forget LA FEMME NIKITA, which was canceled by its network, brought back after protest, canceled again and finally picked up by cable in its final year.

Note that with NIKITA, its network never made a "final episod" although the cable channel did. But at least with JERICHO, its network offered to make a TV movie to bring the show to some conclusion and, thus, finalize the show, rather than just leaving viewers hanging.

JERICHO should never have been aired oposite THE AMERICAN IDOL -- heve you noticed how FOX, the network broadcasting IDOL, reports in its news casts about that show as if it were news. I can't stand the press coverage for IDOL or IDOL. The secret fo IDOL is that when one votes, a charge of, say, 99 cents is made to the vote's cell phone or home phone, which when totaled is a chunck of chgange for a show with a relatively low production budget.

TV needs more dramatic programing like JERICHO, and less of silly so called reality shows, dumbed down sitcoms with built in laugh tracks to signal jokes, and more news outlets spewing so called news about Paris Hilton and the like.

[pbmcutter]

Shortlived?

Arrested Development ran three seasons. A lot of series would love to be that short lived.

[Damion Wolfe]

Ratings have changed from the past

The rating system has to change with the times back in the 70's it might have worked very well, but as technology changes, VCR to now TIVO or even being able to watch it on the Internet people are able to enjoy their TV shows at what ever time they would like. So if one wishes to watch that Idol garbage and record Jericho to enjoy later with out any commercials the rating system has failed one show and works for the other as if it was still 1970's. Time to update!

[hortnut]

Ratings Change

Agree with you.

Viewership is coming from many different angles - time shifting -
TIVO
DVR's
VCR's
Cable companies - allowing time switching, like Comcast's OnDemand
Watching the show online at cbs.com

Networks to the best of my knowledge do not yet have a handle on how to measure the many ways the viewers watch Shows. Which is sad.

[cybervigilante]

Skewed Priorities

I know - I run a website that helps disabled people who are abused and cheated by their disability insurer. Often they end up on the street or killing themselves. But I'm lucky when I get a friggin' ten dollar donation to support all the work involved.

Yet if someone is injured or sick, and we all can be, they wonder why there isn't any help out there. We have a skewed sense of national priorities. No one wants to fund the people who are fighting to defend them, but they'll spend a ton of money on idiocy

Still, I have to by sympathetic to a show that highlights "government thugs," given that our government is run by thugs ;')

[bartszyszka]

TV.com

Hmmm... This article implies that you can go to TV.com to buy episodes as an alternative to iTunes, but when I went there all I saw was iTunes links. The linking would feel more genuine and useful if I was told to go there to find more information about the show in general

[hortnut]

Comcast On Demand & Jericho

In my area Pacific Northwest - Comcast and CBS apparently have made arrangements to place on Comcast's On Demand - certain network shows, with CBS being the only taker so far.

I am already paying for digital cable and on demand comes with it.


What with a busy life and not always able to have the time on Wed night, I would sometimes miss Jericho - but I could watch it later - they usually kept up to 4-6 episodes.

Other CBS shows were Survivor, NCIS, the CSI's.

I wonder how they measured that viewership. Plus more than once I have watched past epsiodes on my laptop at
cbs.com for free.

[okvol]

Other rating problems...

Neilson is just starting to try to measure DVR watchers. Many cable companies offer this option, as well as satellite companies. It is my opinion that the more intelligent audience uses these options often, and are not tied down to the broadcaster's schedule.

[cstoker]

Jericho

Thank you for bringing back Jericho. There have been very few good shows lately my wife and I watch regularly. Jericho was one of them. Why not try viewing it another night, instead of opposite Ameircan Idol? No wonder it did not create the returns you had hoped for. What TV show can compete with AI? (I've never watched it, so it didn't matter to me what was opposite Jericho.

Please bring Jericho back for the full season.

[Sirius Darkamber]

what they forget is canada

what nelson ratings do not check is canadian viewers, or for that matter viewers any where else in the world. we still see there advertising, we are forced to watch reality tv on almost every channel(well i suppose not forced but you know what i mean). canada is the 2nd biggest market around... i know theres only 36 million of us... but when do we get a vote?