So whats the deal with Jericho?  Its been cancelled for a second time, that’s it, that’s the story.  But is this the end for Jericho?  Its just to early to tell, but for now it is.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been following the progress of Jericho as well as watching and loving every single episode that has come out this season.  Episode after episode has been some of the best and most excited television programing during this very tough strike year.  Out of all the television shows I watch, Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and several others, Jericho is the TV show that literally had me on the edge of my seat.  Its that damn exciting and intense.

The reasons behind Jericho’s critical success are easy to point out and are as follows.  Lets start with a couple of the characters:  Skeet Ulrich and Lennie James.  Jake Green and Robert Hawkins, possibly two of the coolest characters on television.  Hawkins by far is the most bad ass of all characters.  These two characters have extremely rich back stories that rival Oscar winning film characters.  Without going into too much detail, both of these characters are the heart and soul of Jericho, and when these two character interact we see some of the most exciting and intense scenes possible.  Another reason is a very strong supporting cast.  The addition of Esai Morales as Major Beck was something that made season 2 so great.  He brought such a tremendous presence to the series as the military leader torn between his duty and whats truly right, the truth.  While watching Major Beck, you can tell that he’s a tough character but at the same time he’s a compassionate character.  I can only imagine what he’ll go through during a third season if one comes about.  As for the rest of the supporting cast and for saving time, almost all of them bring such strength to Jericho.  Overall, the story is the strongest thing that drives Jericho. Jericho has the most intriguing plot I’ve ever seen.  In our real world, a 2nd American civil war is ridiculous and would never happen, or at least I hope it doesn’t, and the fact that the writers can create this world within Jericho is amazing.  I can’t help but feel extremely excited about how season 2 ended, and I’ll touch more on that later.  Everything from season 1 until now leads to that moment when you see the sides beginning to form and it scares the hell out of you and it also breaks your heart.  Imagine it, a 2nd American civil war…  You can only guess what those men felt in the mid to late 1800s.  American soldiers killing American soldiers is a horrible thought but its also extremely exciting because that’s why drama like this is so entertaining. 

You would think that this show should be a major success.  Everyone should be watching Jericho!!  Right? Unfortunately no…  For the second season in a row, Jericho has brought in lackluster ratings, even lower then last season, at least according the the Nielsen ratings.  The EVER popular, the EVER out of date Nielsen system.   Its really is a sad thing when networks can’t look past the Nielsen system.  The online media outlet has brought in great numbers for Jericho, but that doesn’t matter because it doesn’t mean anything, only the Nielsen ratings are important.  Isn’t that sad?  It breaks my heart when I see shows that have such quality like Jericho fail because people would rather tune into stupid programing and reality shows.  Television and movies are about stepping out of reality!  Now networks cater to the unintelligent population by creating new reality shows every season.  These are the shows that everyone is tuning into and its ridiculous.  Along with reality shows, do the networks understand that CBS, ABC, NBC aren’t the only channels to tune into.  Ever since cable was created, there are now hundreds of different channels to watch at any given time.  Now I don’t have any kinds of numbers in front of me, but I can guarantee you that Nielsen ratings are incredibly lower now then they were before cable.  On top of that, we have TIVO… Tons of people TIVO there shows for whatever reason and who knows if those number are really counted towards a network television show.  ON TOP OF THAT we have now whats called new media, the Internet.  Between streaming episodes and downloading from iTunes, networks are bringing in millions of people and lots of cash.  However non of that is counted towards the Nielsen ratings.  Maybe the networks forgot, but that’s what the WGA strike was about.  The writers understand that the Internet is fast becoming the new outlet for original programing and so forth, but I guess networks can’t see that.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the season 2 premiere scored around 700 thousand streams on CBS.com and is one of the most downloaded shows on iTunes. 

All that said, I will admit that we are stuck within a transition period between network programing and new media.  That can be difficult for all parties involved.  The strict stance networks and the Nielsen have could be disastrous for good programing and its starting to prove its own point with the cancellation of Jericho.  Jericho can truly give the definition to a underrated television show.

This past Tuesday night, I watched the series (I’LL say the season) finale of Jericho.  It can best be described in two words, F@#$%&G AWESOME!!  Its so hard to even write about it because I feel so excited with what I just saw.  The excitement, the drama, the patriotism and now the war. Even the visual effects were cool, but that’s besides the point.  Jake and Hawkins seriously kicked ass in this episode, and what Hawkins said at the end, “how does it feel to make history,” seriously gave me chills and such satisfaction when Jake respones was to just smirk.  That was so cool.  Of course the chills during that final scene didn’t end or start there.  Ever since the Cheyenne government took over and change the American flag I felt disgusted.  Seeing American troops and civilians raise a flag that our father’s DIDN’T create made me sick.  When Major Beck’s troops started to rip off the Cheyenne flags from their uniforms, oh man…  I can’t even explain how pumped I got.  The feeling was along the lines of, now these troops are on the right side, our side, since we know the whole story.  It’s a feel good moment.  You see, these are just example’s from a season finale, showing you how immersed you can get with Jericho.  Just imagine what the entire series does to people!  Basically season two ends with total satisfaction in the most glorious way possible.  It wraps up the first two seasons, but now it opens up an entirely new direction, Civil War.  YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT!!  For god sakes, Jericho fans want to see it!  How is this war going to come at us.  Which leads me on to my next subject: The Future.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been hearing rumblings from executive producer Carol Barbee, stating that if Jericho gets cancelled by CBS, they’ll look for other outlets to finance and distribute Jericho.  As of now, there are currently two networks that are interested in bring over Jericho, The CW and The Sci Fi Channel.  There isn’t obviously any news on if either of those networks will pick up Jericho, but we as fans have hopes.  A lot of people say that CBS didn’t support Jericho with advertising, budget and a crappy time slot.  They could be very right, but with luck, if Sci Fi picks it up, they’ll promote Jericho the way they promote their other key shows like Battlestar Galactica or Stargate and so on.  I just hope they don’t give it a crappy time slot like CBS did.  It also would be a wise choice for Sci Fi to pick it up, given the fact that Battlestar Galactica is on its final season.  Sci Fi is starting to run out of shows.  Jericho could lead in a new set of Sci Fi channel shows and reinvigorate the channel.  Remember the days when we would have Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and Galactica on in a row, Sci Fi Friday.  The was the best day of the week for many reasons.  I want that back, and they could start it up with Jericho.  As I said, there isn’t any word on what is happening with that and I doubt they’ll be any word for several weeks or maybe a couple of months.  Another rumor floating around is that the Jericho cast is in fact not under contract any more.  That rumor has been recently debunked by Moviehole, stating that they are still under contract up until June 15th.  By then we should know if anyone has picked it up… at least I hope so.

Until then all we can do as fans is support Jericho and spread the word.  If you want to help spread the word and get your voice out there, Jericho-Kansas.com has put up a list of addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for the likes of Carol Barbee, Jon Turteltaub (executive producer).  They’ve also put up the same for CBS so we can ask to have Jericho shopped around to different networks.  Also addresses for The CW and the Sci Fi Channel, so we can convince one of them to pick it up and give the fans what they want, good original programing.  With that, there are plenty of ways to help out but this is a good place to start.  So head on over there.

In closing, I love Jericho as much as the next fan does.  Its a remarkable show with a richness that many shows lack.  We who watch shows like this are the type of people that like to be entertained, the people who understand that its ok to step out of reality and just unwind and stretch the brain muscles.  I ask all who read this to continue to support Jericho and help out to get a third season and help continue the story of one of the most historical behind the scenes experiences from “nuts” to season 3.

-Phil