I was all set to go off with a really heinous rant on CBS concerning the Jericho cancellation, but I just got off the phone with someone in their press office who was really nice so I’ll hold back. A little bit.
So it’s official that Jericho is off the air. Having just watched the season (and now, series) finale last night I’m here to tell you that I’m really pissed. To just pull the plug on a show after a huge cliffhanger is in my opinion just a plain slap in the face to the viewers that did tune in to the show.
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I was told that after the show returned from it’s Spring hiatus, the ratings dropped by 25% and continued to do so. Sure, TV viewers are to blame for not tuning in, but the show was off the air for what… three or four MONTHS? That’s just too long of a break mid-season, and even stronger shows like Heroes and Lost took ratings hits coming back from extended breaks this season. But poor Jericho got a double dose by returning and having CBS change its time slot to put it directly opposite the 800 pound ratings gorilla known as American Idol.
The networks are now shying away from shows with this sort of linear storyline next season, pointing to the eroding viewership as to why. Here’s a clue CBS (and others): multi-month mid-season breaks let your audience forget about a show. How well do you think even hit shows like (gag me) Survivor and American Idol would do if midway through the competition the show went off the air for a few months, hmm?
BTW, here’s a prediction for ABC’s Lost: In the coming seasons that show will continue to lose viewers like a gunshot victim loses blood. They’re going in the complete opposite direction that they should be heading in… instead of the planned three 16-episode seasons, they need to increase the number of episodes per season. No mid-season hiatus, just start it a bit later and end it a bit earlier. If three or four months in between new episodes is eroding ratings, how can they possibly think that eight or nine months will help the show? BTW, Battlestar Galactica is going to suffer from this same affliction with no new episodes coming until 2008.
And then, one needs to take into consideration what shows are airing opposite the series in question. Heroes is up against Fox’s 24, and I’ve already mentioned Jericho’s nemesis.
So instead of addressing the problem with the way they broadcast the shows, they blame viewers and move onto the next load of crapola to send our way. The replacement show for Jericho is Kid Nation:
“A reality-based series in which 40 kids will have 40 days to build a new world — in a ghost town that died in the 19th Century. These kids, ages 8-15, will spend more than a month without their parents or modern comforts in Bonanza City, N.M., attempting to do what their forefathers could not — build a town that works.”
I’ll be sure to tune into that… NOT.
It turns out the only show I even watched on CBS was Jericho. Now that that’s gone, I won’t be tuning into anything else on that network. I was actually thinking of checking out their new Aardman Animation-created show Creature Comforts, but now I won’t just as a matter of principle.
If you’re reading this execs, get a clue as to why people won’t tune into shows that require a commitment in the future: If viewers think you might just pull the plug in the middle of an ongoing and compelling storyline, people won’t tune in in the first place.
Who needs that aggravation? I sure don’t.
Thanks for nothing.
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21 Comments
I hate when I really get into a TV show and they pull this kind of crap……I am going to use my child safety channel blocker to block that stupid station……..I hope they go bankrupt.
What is the possibility of another channel picking it up??
smitty
Vic
Sounds like Invasion all over again. Seriously, even for the sake of DVD sales, they should still produce an ending for the show. Who wants to own “The Complete Series” when the series is incomplete?
Vic
Could it be that at least NBC has learned something? Do you think maybe that the “Heroes: Origins” series came about as a way to maintain fan interest between seasons of the original show? It might be the case.
I haven’t heard when the Origins mini will be broadcast… so it will act as a snack to tide fans over until the real show begins?
Vic
I think Origins will air instead of reruns to curb declines in viewers during fall hiatus
It’s a great idea.
Vic
Yeah, I’ve got to give them credit for using a bit of ingenuity. Besides origins, I think they’re going to continue publishing those nifty supplementary comics as well. (at least I think I heard something along those lines, I could be wrong).
Jericho is one of the few shows I actually look forward to watching. The network is at fault for this. Put it back on and quit making so many breaks in the programming. How many seasons can you have in a year? Those of us who hate “”Reality shows” have nothing to watch. Knock it off.
Yeah, this is why I am sceptical about watching unfinished series. Now with this I am more prone than ever to not watch TV at all and look for finished TV series on the web. A lot of what I watch is foriegn stuff from Japan and Europe and I almost never start into something that isn’t already finished because something like a third of it (in some places) just gets dropped. From now on I think I’ll do the same thing with American TV. Call me when it’f finished. I’ll start watching it then, not before.
CBS needs to bring back Jericho. It appears it has more fans than it’s other shows based on the outcry to save it and the sheer numbers of fans you visit it’s cbs site….. more than that of other CBS shows.. and for everyone posting there there are thousands of others.
An outrage, no excuse..and then to replace it with trash like kid nation and exploit children instead…
CBS is dead to me. They kill Jericho & replace it with this garbage called Kid Nation?? I will not watch CBS. NUTS!
I know there were some people who didn’t know when Jericho came back after hiatus - I mean they thought the show had been cancelled midseason and wasn’t coming back, so they didn’t know when to tune in! My hubby and I never saw one single advertisement saying “Jericho returns on this date!” and only knew about the return because we went to the Jericho website and looked for the date.
LOST has had the same trouble, but has PURPOSEFULLY listened to their fans. THey’ve said “Well, fans don’t like the hiatus. They don’t like repeats every other week. THis time lets try postponing it to midseason” Fans ARE willing to work with you, if you are willing to work with them. Most have come to agree that waiting till midseason is good enough.
CBS has taken a diamond and put it in a plastic setting instead of the gold and silver it deserves.
This has to be one of the more bizarre network moves ever. With viewership down across the board, I don’t see how they can think the viewers just aren’t there anymore. The viewers are there, but are timeshifting, but networks are afraid to admit it because they haven’t adequately planned for the new ways people watch television.
It’s not just American Idol! All of these serial shows are competing with ball practice, yard work,and other activities. They weren’t competing with a lot of these things in the fall. People are still watching Jericho, Heroes, and Lost. They just aren’t being counted by Nielsen, which is so far behind the times as to be practically obsolete. With advertisers refusing to pay premium rates for advertising on these expensive shows without proof of viewership, the networks are going to have to get inventive. If viewers can timeshift, networks can adshift.
Furthermore, Nielsen’s sample of 5000 families is far too small to accurately reflect how viewers are choosing from among the numerous options available to them, and doesn’t bother to measure important alternative viewing methods. They recently added samed day DVR viewing to the ratings, but it’s too little, too late. Nielsen has become irrelevant.
Networks need to get with the times. They should create online subscription galleries with hi-def images for viewers and let the viewers play with them. I know lots of people who currently download illegal copies of these programs for the hi-def images they want to use for creating their fan-art. Providing a subscription service for a legal image gallery is a great way to, not only track what the fans are digging, but a new venue for advertisers. Most fans would much rather have legal copies anyway, and networks should take advantage of viral marketing structures, not try to control them. ABC has the right idea with Lost. I have never heard of them slapping the wrist of a fan who was trying to share their love of Lost. Yet, CBS removed its Countdown episodes from YouTube.
Allow people to embed videos from Innertube, and your online advertisers will play to a much wider audience. That makes your online advertising far more valuable. If you can create advertising that cannot be skipped prior to playing an online vid, you can create advertising that cannot be skipped and tack it on to the beginning of your OnDemand service episodes. Personally, I don’t mind ads at the beginning. Just don’t interrupt the program every 10 minutes.
That said, I usually don’t skip the ads in programs that I DVR. I can’t remember to do it! Ads in DVR viewing are just as valuable as ads during the initial airing. There is no difference, really. During initial viewing one is just as likely to leave the room to make a sandwich as to fast forward while watching on DVR.
The question is…will they ever learn?
Great post, thanks for commenting!
Vic
CBS has supreme arrogance, throwing away 8 million viewers for Kiddie Survivor. They should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting kids that way. Jericho was so incredibly awesome and I want it to come back - no 2 hour wrap up movie - the real show.
I am honestly flored… I finally thought that I had a show I coul rely on but alas I was apperenty mistaken… CBS can stick it in their perverbial A$$. I will not watch any more of thier shows due to this robbery of good story line (for once). Even thier damned CSI series… Maybe that is a though “CSI Jericho”? What do you think? Maybe then the CBS exec’s could be sold on another unoriginal frickin idea… LOL… Another thought, would be to sell the damned show to Scif??? That is what Showtime did with SG-1 and look what a frickin hit that turned into?!?!?!? I guess that the out of touch executives at CBS dont have even that much of a fricken clue… Well I say that they can kiss my white, hairy bupkis and I will just stick to other networks who I know will not let me down with a story line that wont leave me hanging once it finally gets interesting…
PS- PHA-Q CBS and your whole Fu**in network… if you cant figure that out ya’ll are even bigger idiot’s than i thought…
Jericho returns in reruns to CBS on July 6 at 9 p.m. Season 2 begins this Fall. Please watch & invite others to watch.
Thanks.
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