According to CBS, the shortened second season of Jericho will compress an entire 22 season storyline into just seven episodes.

This latest news indicates that they’re still assuming the worst, and that the show will not go beyond seven episodes when it returns to the air. I’m happy to hear this because it would be the greatest of ironies if they were to get cocky and build another cliffhanger into the seventh episode only to have things end the same way again.

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Jericho’s pilot episode was re-broadcast last Friday night and had the best prime time ratings of the evening. If you haven’t heard, Jericho is a TV series set in a post-nuclear-attack-ridden U.S.A. Last season it followed the lives of citizens in a small Kansas town named… Jericho.

Although the show was slow to start, it ended up being a very good series (at least I thought so) but due to an overly long hiatus between the Fall and Spring season plus the fact that when it returned it was scheduled against American Idol, the ratings were sluggish and the show was canceled.

What’s the big deal, you may ask?

Just a grab bag of stuff from the last week and half including my server crash, thoughts on Fantastic Four 2 being rated PG, Jericho’s return, Lost’s ending, why I’m worried about the recently announced Captain America movie, and more!

According to Jericho executive producer Stephen Chbosky, the show may be returning sooner than 2008. It’s not written in stone, but Jericho could be returning as soon as October.

According to Chbosky (don’t ask me how to pronounce that) there is a much smaller budget for the remaining seven episodes, which will impact both casting and location shooting. It will take some creativity to work within the confines of the smaller budget. They do however have a number of main characters signed up to return: Skeet Ulrich (Jake Green), Lennie James (Robert Hawkins), Brad Beyer (Stanley) and Alicia Coppola (Mimi) are coming back and there’s a good chance that Pamela Reed (Gail Green) will be returning as well.

It looks like the huge groundswell of support from fans of CBS’ Jericho may have actually done something.
[Update: Yes, it IS official. 7 new episodes (7? wierd number...) coming next mid-season.]

Before you fans of the show get all crazy-happy, please remember that this is NOT official NOR confirmed… Over at TVGuide.com one of their columnists is saying that a limited, 8 episode run of Jericho may very well happen next season.

Hey folks! Another weekly summary for you including news on the “Save Jericho” campaign, the reveal of Heath Ledger as The Joker from The Dark Knight, Iron Man news and the season finales of Lost and Heroes.

I hope you enjoy the smooth listening sounds of the audio version of Screen Rant.

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Over at Ain’t It Cool News, Merrick is keeping the folks up to date with what’s going on in the “Save Jericho” movement. Not that it’s the best place to do it, considering how the site is filled with visitors who hate pretty much everything, including Jericho.

There’s a huge campaign afoot to send a gigantic amount of nuts to CBS, in honor of the “Nuts” story told in the series finale. As of this writing there are almost 17 THOUSAND pounds of nuts being sent to CBS!

I don’t know if anything will actually be done that will satisfy fans of CBS’ canceled Jericho series, but at the very least it’s apparent that they have heard the outcry and have responded to the fans.

Here’s a quote by Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment:

We have read your emails over the past few days and have been touched by the depth and passion with which you have expressed your disappointment. Please know that canceling a television series is a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people at the Network, the production company and the incredibly-talented creative team worked very hard to build and serve the community for this show — both on-air and online. It is a show we loved too.

Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story.

This week’s podcast has a little bit of news on The Dark Knight, Iron Man, the upcoming Terminator movies and Stallone’s John Rambo. Also some TV coverage regarding the ill-advised Jericho cancellation and the overly jam-packed Smallville Season 6 finale.

I apologize for a couple of skips and the abrupt ending, it seems my connection was a bit “iffy” today. :-\

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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.