Jericho (TV Review CH10 / CBS)
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Jericho has been axed at the end of Season 2 - this time permanently 
After getting the chop the first time, fans of Jericho were so outraged they famously bombarded CBS with peanuts. It was such a concerted campaign it was enough to win a seven episode reprieve.
But that’s it.
“The March 25th episode of Jericho will be the series finale,” CBS has now said in a statement. “Without question, there are passionate viewers watching this program; we simply wish there were more. We thank an engaged and spirited fan base for keeping the show alive this long, and an outstanding team of producers, cast and crew that went through creative hoops to deliver a compelling, high quality second season.
“We have no regrets bringing the show back for a second try. We listened to our viewers, gave the series an opportunity to grow, and the producers put a great story on the screen. We’re proud of everyone’s efforts.”
For the seven-episode second season, producers shot two endings - one that leaves viewers in suspense for a third round, another that is more conclusive.
The first three episodes of Jericho season 2 were leaked online continuing off from the series 1 Jericho Vs Newbern battle.
Whether this is a deliberate marketing act is unclear, but the episodes (which have been confirmed by early downloaders to be real) are available on Torrent sites and on binary newsgroups.
People who’ve watched the episodes suspect they’re been leaked without the knowledge of the Network CBS or their production company because there is no watermark and in between each segments there are a few seconds of silent black screen where the ads would have been inserted
Jericho is a CBS TV show whose storyline revolves around how residents of a small, rural Kansas town deal with the aftermath of a series of nuclear explosions across America.
EDITOR: CBS officially announced Jericho’s cancellation on May 16, 2007 
Fans responded by posting millions of nuts to CBS executives. Why nuts? In the final episode Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) borrowed the historic phrase “NUTS” in response to a final offer of surrender from a hostile neighbouring town.
On June 5, 2007, Jericho executive producer Carol Barbee announced that CBS was discussing the possibility of the shows return for an eight-episode run. A day later, it was announced that seven new episodes of Jericho had been commissioned for the 2007-2008 television season, with the possibility of an extension based on ratings 
:-)
There are several reasons why Channel 10’s decision to delay broadcasting Jericho episodes is really stupid. In fact they haven’t shown the last episodes from season 1 after pulling Jericho from the air blaming low ratings.
When Channel 10 first started showing episodes of Jericho in late 2006, it did so on the same day the episode screened on CBS
in the USA. Fans of futuristic/sci-fi TV shows were really happy because this meant they could watch the episodes in full quality on their TV and they didn’t have to use their broadband Internet connection to download episodes via Bittorrent or Binary Newsgroups.
Channel 10 encouraged people to believe this was a permanent change in strategy when their General Manager of digital media was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald:
Another thing audiences want is to keep up to date with their favourite foreign TV shows. If they think the networks are being tardy in showing new episodes, they’re more than willing to resort to online piracy to see what they want. Last year, Ten avoided this problem with Jericho by screening it on the same day it appeared in the US and Smith says the network would definitely be open to doing that again - whether to reduce piracy or just to keep viewers satisfied. “To the extent that we can make that work, we’re happy to do it,” he says. “The days when Australia’s going to be two or three seasons behind the US are gone forever.”
Unfortunately this was a false dawn for Jericho fans as soon afterwards a 10 spokesman stated:
It’s great that Jericho has such a dedicated following amongst Australian viewers. We’re currently holding off airing the
most recent eps as we’d like to assess the storylines before confirming a new timeslot. We appreciate how much Jericho is enjoyed by it’s loyal fans in Australia and for this reason we need to be careful where the series is placed to ensure the long-term success of Jericho on Ten.
This showed that nothing had really changed and commercial TV programmers and executives are still just as clueless as before, not understanding that they aren’t the monopoly source of TV shows any more and a growing number of TV viewers have the opportunity to download TV episodes from the Internet or buy the show on DVD given the motive of inexplicable broadcasting delays by TV networks.
The results are really bad for Channel 10 and their fellow commercial TV stations and reduce their ability to generate profits:
- Lower Ratings - People who have downloaded the shows from the Internet or bought them on DVD will not watch them again when they’re finally shown on TV
- Delayed Broadcasts = Lower audience numbers = Lower ratings = Less Advertising Revenue. One assumes that the TV networks want to make a profit for their shareholders, but their actions sure don’t help to achieve this goal.
- Driving Viewers into Committing Piracy - this is a guaranteed way to make viewers disloyal because once people are forced to pirate TV shows and they find out just how much choice there is on the Internet, they’re likely to bypass TV stations altogether and go straight to pirated sources for new TV series from then on
- Annoying viewers - most businesses try and keep their customers happy, as far as I can tell this idea has never occurred to those in power at TV stations because they believe viewers will stick with them forever regardless of how badly they’re treated.
In this case the delay dismayed fans so much that they posted details to Channel 10’s Internet chat forums so that other fans could access pirated copies of episodes that 10 hadn’t broadcast yet
Finally a few days ago Channel 10 announced that they’re:
Thrilled to be able to say that yes, Jericho will return at 9:30 Friday
commencing Friday 27th April, starting with the episode “The Day Before”.
Channel 10 didn’t apologise to viewers for delaying episodes by 2 months … but by this time most fans had given up on them anyway and were downloading the latest episodes via the Internet, so ironically the chance of “long-term success of Jericho on Ten” is very low.
If you don’t want to rely on inconsistent Ch10 scheduling for Jericho check out the other options in Comment #5
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In a further twist, Jericho has been pulled from TV schedules yet again to make way for “Pussycat Dolls: Search for the Next Doll” … I kid you not!
Once again there is no firm re-schedule and the only thing that’s certain is Australian fans of Jericho will fall even further behind the plotline of current episodes in the USA unless they resort to piracy
I have been rather turned off free to air episode based television for over a year now, and believe it or not channel 10, you managed to pull me back there for a while, I was tuning in religiously on Thursdays to see the latest Jericho because it was better than downloading it. Sadly your lack of vision has seen me go into the wilderness again, I have been up to date in Jericho, Lost, 24, Greys, blah blah blah for so long now..
I have nothing to talk about round the water cooler other than the recent slayings, or aircraft crashes that are not a form of fiction, even then ch10 put their news on before I even leave the office so there isnt any chance of tuning in there…
The only tv worth tuning in for is on Wednesdays on channel 2… (imho)
EDITOR: I take it you’re referring to The Chasers War On Everything ?
I also expected to settle down to a nice fresh ep of jericho after waiting what seemed an eternity, to find myself screaming at my tv because a show previously reserved for Sunday night after Rove has appeared outta nowhere! :@
I’ve pretty much given up on free to air after this latest faux par and have resorted to torrents for my viewing pleasure… Shame, Channel 10, shame.
P.S - LOST rocks
EDITOR: even the TV critics are annoyed at Ten’s last minute cancellation, this is what the TV critic in “The Australian” said on 21st April morning:
this is why Australian download so much because all the OLD farts running these networks don’t understand.
the 3 Major networks all have done this to there viewers at some stage over and over again they lost my viewing about 8 years ago when i could download star trek voyager eps and i was years ahead of channel9, hell channel 7 skipped a whole season of sg1 and even then they stuff the order up
over the years they done this to all the star treks in recent years, roswell, SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, FARSCAPE, and now Jericho
all because they just don’t care well i could care less about them then im off the find some bit torrents
EDITOR: your comment says it all, by trying to manipulate the audience they’ve lost if completely
CBS streams full episodes of Jericho on their website supported by short ads, but if Australians (or any one else outside the USA) tries to view them they get blocked.
I’ve found a way to get around this so anyone outside the USA can watch full CBS shows online
1. Find an anonymous HTTP proxy located in the United States eg: 129.82.12.188:8888 which I got from this list of US proxies. Don’t choose a transparent one, it must be anonymous to work. Also these proxies are quite busy so you might have to try a few before you get one to work.
2. In Internet Explorer’s “Internet Options”, choose “Connections” -> “Lan Settings”
3. Type the proxy’s IP eg: 129.82.12.188 into the “Address” field and the Port number into the “Port” field eg: 8888. Click OK and then OK again so all the dialog boxes close.
4. Go to http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/videos.php in the address bar
5. A list of episodes will be displayed. Click on the Play button next to the episode you want to watch
6. A CBS popup window will open titled “Innertube”, you might have to choose between watching the video in Realplayer or Windows Media Player format
7. Some short ads may play before the episode starts playing (see below for a screenshot playing the last episode of season 1)
It’s quite logical why most Australian viewers resort to internet piracy. I mean, you get to watch the first few episodes of Jericho then all of a sudden the network would stop airing the next episodes, now that can really drive you nuts specially when your really hooked on the story. A very stupid move indeed.
Thanks for commenting on my article… Yours is significantly better, I shouldn’t have written it right after getting the news; I was steamed! Hope you stop by again sometime….
We just gave up watching Ten at all. We get all our the shows we would have watched on their network either via the net or on DVD. Would rather wait for the DVD’s than to be insulted by not even being told when a series is being dropped.
We even stopped watching Supernatural and Medium and get them from O/S. I would never waste my time watching a series on this network. And why contribute to their ratings when they treat viewers with contempt anyway? The management there are obviously pretty dim.
this is one very unhappy cath here, i bought pay t.v so the bastards on free to air can stick there crap up there buttholes. these days its so rare to get a show on t.v. that is so much different than the lollypop garbage that we now seem to have shoved down our throats. JERICHO was a treat for a change and it gets the ass….i mean honestly who wants liver all the time when you can get a taste of chocolate mouse… JERICHO was the chocolate mouse we have been waiting for and now its back to go damned liver… i feel so sick that its gone. listen to your public free to air… we are the ones that keep your stations alive.
I gave up on free to air a while ago
Damn. This is my favourite show. And i don’t get to watch it. Im so dissapointed in channel ten for this. Really, it has made me upset.
Regards Shane
I was a contributor to the ‘Nuts’ movement; I’m so happy it’s coming back on the air. I feel for y’all down under, you should get shows at the same time we do; the delay is stupid.
Q how many episodes did channel 10 play… did they finish the first series… from what episode should I start down loading
I have series 2 but don’t want to watch it till I know I have seen all series 1
thanks for that… it looks like I have to download from episode 14 series 1
and will have to wait till next month so I don’t go over my cap