This was a nice article regarding Jericho. This addressed a lot of the thoughts/questions I read previously on these threads..... from
Matt Roush (TV Guide) The crusade to keep Jericho alive, including a highly publicized stunt involving mailing nuts to CBS headquarters, was without question the hot fan campaign of this cancellation season. And while few columnists or critics, having lived through these things before, were in the business of giving these fans false hope, in retrospect this is one of those cases where giving a show like this a second shot actually makes sense.
From the start, I felt it was short-sighted of CBS to cancel this show, despite slipping numbers in the back half of the season (a result of a long hiatus and a return on a night then dominated by Fox and American Idol). Jericho, unlike nearly anything else on CBS’s schedule, has a cult vibe, one that resonated on the Internet and the blogosphere. For a network that’s trying to increase its buzz quotient while building its online business with the Innertube outlet, Jericho is precisely the sort of show CBS should be nurturing.
I say this as someone who’s not exactly a fan of Jericho. I hated it at the start, but stuck with it and felt it got more compelling when the townspeople had to confront some dicey ethical survival issues in the post-nuclear winter, and it moved on from letting Super Jake save the day each week. The show built to a strong cliffhanger climax as the neighboring cities of Jericho and New Bern engaged in open warfare over the region’s limited resources. In some ways, it’s the heartland version of Lost (a lot more square, a lot more ordinary, but not without points of interest).
Reviving a show after its official cancellation is very rare, and I wouldn't expect to see others following suit—so no, fans of The Black Donnellys, Veronica Mars, What About Brian, etc., who keep writing me, I wouldn't get your hopes up. So how to explain this possible resurrection? In part, I'm thinking if CBS were more confident about its new lineup, featuring several shows so risky (Viva Loughlin, Moonlight) they make Jericho look run-of-the-mill, the network might not feel the need to have this as backup. But also look at all the free and positive publicity CBS will enjoy by giving Jericho a new lease on life.
Whatever happens next, whether Jericho returns at midseason as a limited series (more like a miniseries continuation) or if it ultimately has an even longer life, there’s no way to look at this situation as anything but a triumph for the fans.
How rare is that? And how fitting for a show that, at heart, is about surviving against the odds.
