Jericho Struggling?

What is it about Jericho? I know I pounded on it a bit in it's first season for what appeared to be soup opera type plot lines. Other than that, I was a faithful fan until it returned from hiatus. Now, do you think I can set through a complete episode? Nope..... Oh I got the jist, new government coming in, may or may not be legit, the whole "attack" may have been a complete inside job, several of the main characters risk being discovered for this or that infringement... and so on. Not one part of that led me to think Jericho might be worth spending 10 more minutes with. Which is strange, because Jericho is clearly one of the better shows being offered on any of the networks. The machinations just are not holding me and that seems to be what was happening to it's last episode. Which seems to be the same with quite a few watchers. Mike Hinman at SyFy Portal reports that Jericho lost 9% of it's audience on it recent episode, turning in one of the lowest weeks yet. I certainly am not panning the show, but for me, it's once too many times back to the same well.

Read Michael Hinman's post on SyFy Portal

Paul Goebel on TVSquad blog had some interesting observations on some Jericho "Oversights" as well.

Its Official - Jericho gets a reprieve from CBS

According to ETonline:

NINA TASSLER, President of CBS Entertainment, has issued the following statement to fans of "Jericho": "Over the past few weeks, you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a primetime television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard. As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of 'Jericho' for mid-season next year."

Photo: Cliff Lipson/ CBS

Jericho may get a repeal from CBS!!!

From the SyFy Blog:

TV Guide columnist and chief scooper Michael Ausiello is reporting that CBS is close to announcing that the recently-cancelled television show "Jericho" is going to get an eight-episode renewal.

"Multiple sources are telling me that CBS is this close to sealing a deal to bring 'Jericho' back for at least eight episodes, possibly at mid-season," Ausiello said.

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Jericho may have a second life?

From the SyFy Portal blog:

Although rumors are persisting that CBS has no intention of bringing back its cancelled post-apocalytic series "Jericho," the series' former showrunner Carol Barbee assured fans late Thursday night that there might be a future for the show elsewhere. "We heard there were some rumors, that some of the [network] affiliates had been talking in Las Vegas," said Barbee.

click here for complete story

CBS' Jericho may not return in the fall

It's a bad time to be on the bubble at the Eye.

Underperforming shows seeking a spot on the CBS sked next fall will face an uphill struggle. Assuming CBS goes through with plans to take some chances, execs will need to open up some slots.

That's not good news for "Jericho," the apocalyptic hour that looked to be the Eye's big drama hit of the year but saw its ratings come tumbling down after returning from a lengthy hiatus -- and went head-to-head against "American Idol."

Eye execs are keeping a close watch on the show. If things don't get better once "Idol" moves out of its path, this promising hour might be in jeopardy -- despite strong internal support for the show.

Science Fiction show reminders

Here are the updates for Science Fiction shows that have been on hiatus

Daybreak on ABC - all episodes, even those unaired will be available January 29 on the web.

Battlestar Galactica returns this Sunday, January 21st. SciFi has moved it from its Friday slot

Heroes will be back January 22nd.

Jericho returns on February 21st

Jericho season ending episode

Well Jericho fans, I guess you all know now that the show is going on hiatus until early next year. As you would think, popular shows like Jericho going on such a hiatus would end the season with a cliff hanger worthy of keeping your interest until new shows arrive. So what is the cliff hanger for Jericho? Oh it's got to be more info on why it would seem China is dropping food to Jericho or the bad boy militia men back for more....or....nope...literally an email from some mystery men saying “See You Soon!” Yeah it was a bit creepy but all I did was laugh. Yeah it was that lame. Roger and a group of refugees come walking back into town.....That could have been climatic, but it was like an afterthought. Hawkins still getting messages from his mystery people is strange enough but for the rest of the season ender we could have been watching an episode of Gunsmoke....Grey's wanna be mayor antics lead me to think we were going to see a lynching. And that foolishness of Bonnie seeking out the bad boy element... give me a break. The only surprise from this one hour snooze was Dale walking out of the light to shoot Mitchell for stabbing Gracie....Didn't make up for this episode being a real ho hum snoozer. I will be real surprised if Jericho gets back half of its audience in February.

Jericho for 11-22-06

This episode of Jericho was something akin to waiting in the dentist's office and hearing the drill do it's worst in the next room. I knew something was going to happen, the wait was killing me and in the end what finally happened was well, confusing. This week Russian Migs and bombers fly over Jericho and drop...ummm food and fliers from China!? What's the first thing that happens? Well yeah after the almost riots and fights the mayor puts all the food off limits because it might be contaminated. The rational used? Well you remember the indians and how they were wiped out with infected blankets?...oh no wait, I have just started with this...so we get the prerequisite amounts or arguments and fights ending with the food being off limits for fear of poison or worse. Then they discover that the parachutes have RFID chips and are American in design. Am I the only one to see Rube Goldberg in this? There were fighters and bombers people! Why do through all the trouble of poison when you had a f...in bomber right there to do the job for you! No the food appears to be some part of an elaborate misdirection. So that was the high points. The rest of the show was 90210 mixed with Days of our lives. The pregnant wife that is jilted for a barmaid but won't tell she is pregnant because she doesn't want him back just for the baby. The son who won't be coming home for the holidays because he is keeping time with another woman. The bickering couple brought together by life's harshness find themselves inexplicably in bed....do I have to go on? I know CBS is trying to cater to a wide audience but this schizophrenic plot is going to alienate more people than it attracts.

Jericho 11/16/06

Well shut my mouth for calling Jericho a soap opera with bombs. Last two shows have put a stop to that sentiment. This Wednesday’s offering was one of the best shows to date. Last week as you know the brothers went off to get meds for their dad the mayor. Well this week the Mercs follow them to Jericho for a standoff on the connecting bridge. Jake has gone against his brother’s and father’s wishes and has rigged the bridge with explosives ala the federal building blast of a few years back. (what’s the deal with red necks and fuel oil bombs? Is this something they practice at?) Anyway the climax of this weeks show was the stand off on the bridge. Jake has a laser dot on his chest and a mysterious dot appears on the chest of the head merc. When the camera spins around whom do we see? Yep you guessed it. Jake and Hawkins have some history with this bandit/merc it would seem. Lets see, they both can make bombs on the fly, have access and are familiar with high powered firearms in a sniper capacity and have dealt with mercenaries in the past….You can tell CBS is loading up for a season ender the 29. They certainly have my interest now. Don’t get me wrong.. the majority of the show is still a soap with candles, but the action sequences are more than making up for the snooze elements.

Jericho episode review for 11/8/06

Jerico review

This Wednesday we picked up at where Jake and Eric are on their way to a nearby hospital to retrieve medicine for Jake's father. When they arrive at their destination, no one is to be found on the streets, or in the parking lot of the hospital. When all of a sudden, gunfire explodes from the building and the two men run. Jake suggests that the gunfire is from the top floor. They enter the building where they hear a man, from the top floor, asking them to put down their weapons or else. Once they gain the mans trust they meet the only doctor alive in the facility, and the shooter, who was an assassin in the war in Iraq. The shooter is protecting the building from other government troops trying to take over the building. Jake and Eric retrieve the medicine, and return to Jericho, where they administer it to mr. Green and the episode ends there.

posted by Courtney Cole

Jericho will take ten-week hiatus after November 29

In an effort to ward off possible ratings downturn, CBS has plans to institute a radical plan to foster viewer interest. According to the blog "TV Squad" CBS knows what it has with Jericho; a hit drama . But it also knows the risks having such a hit show brings with it; it's not a very rerunable show, and airing too many repeats in a row might kill the show's momentum. So CBS has decided to go the route that ABC did with Lost (and NBC wanted to do with ER until the show's ratings went up) and will put the show on a ten-week hiatus after it's "fall season" finale on November 29. New episodes will come back in February.

Jericho episode 7

Jericho continues to plod along and this week’s offering was no exception.

The writers have set a deterministic path that doesn’t deviate from any of the tried and true post atomic apocalypse predecessors. The argument could be made that Jericho is about Jericho but after 6 going on 7 weeks now, we know almost exactly what we knew in the first episode about what has really happened, pressingly little (pardon the pun)

The plot is more driven now by character development than the theme of the show. All the main characters are becoming very well rounded, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However at what point do we say that, who had a boyfriend -before, who was married to whom - before, who had a mysterious or criminal past – before….etc. There were several instances in this week’s show where information about this or that person “before” seemed almost silly and certainly didn’t add an iota positive or negative to what is currently the situation in Jericho. I suspect that instead of a mushroom cloud you could have had a class 5 twister touch down and had very much the same show.

The previews of next week however have Jake and his brother off getting medication for their critically ill father in another town that isn’t faring anywhere near as well as Jericho.

I don’t know about you but I am more than ready to see what’s happened to the outside world. Jericho is getting thick at the top with well rounded characters and thin at the bottom with plot development. Time to even the load or Jericho will crash and burn.

Jericho episode six

Wow can Jericho go any slower? There are proving to be fewer surprises than a crackerjack box. The government tax lady seems all to willing to dispose of law and order to further her agenda. Other than that we have horse rustlers, hooligans, robbers, crops going bad, drinking and fighting and shotguns ablazin and so on…. We are finally privy to Hawkins being an absent father for four years, which is suspiciously the same time that Jake was gone…..hummm. We do find out more of what happened to make Jake leave town four years ago. The two mystery wildcards are still in play as they concern Jake and Hawkins, but it’s turning out to be a thin thread to hold the seams of Jericho together. Calling this a so so episode is being kind. Jericho is turning into a thinly disguised cowboy western.

Jericho episode 3

Jericho continues to feed us small bits and pieces of the plot. The mayors son Jake continues to be a mystery. He has been places and knows much more than you would expect the son of a small mid-western town father to know.

The very last moments of this weeks show, has another enigmatic character, Hawkins, the only one who it seems has a connection to the outside world through his computer, calling up information on Jake, the mayors son...who it would appear was of interest to the government before the "incident" More to the point neither Jake or Hawkins are who they claim they are.

Mysteriously the power comes back on and all the phones ring with the same message coming out of them. Then the tvs show an emergency warning message. All of which leads up to what appears to be missiles being launched by the US.

The slow pace of the plot may be a bit aggravating but it would seem that there is still no end in site as the onion that is Jericho is slowly unpeeled.