Originally posted by pisher: They spent many millions of dollars bringing back a show that had already proven itself a failure after being given a very effective promotion and kick-off by them, and then bled viewers week after week, when it became obvious there wasn't enough of a story there, and that the characters were one dimensional and trite.
So why would you say CBS is willing to waste millions of dollars to thumb their noses at some losers sending them nuts?
They brought it back because they didn't want to admit they'd been stupid to greenlight it in the first place...
No chimp would be dumb enough to care about Jericho. But it doesn't take a genius to know it would have failed in any timeslot, with any lead-in.
Long-time lurker, first-time poster.
Jericho was not a failure in the first half of its first season, nor did it "bleed" viewers week after week. The show debuted with 11.7 million viewers and consistently drew 10 million viewers for the rest of the fall, except for those weeks when it was up against the closing episodes of Dancing With The Stars. It was a modest hit, at 8 PM, with no lead-in. Given those results, it was not a mistake for CBS to have greenlit the series.
What was a mistake was the ten-week hiatus, which killed its momentum and (along with American Idol) brought the show down to 8 million viewers. The more recent nine-month hiatus has resulted in 7 million viewers. None of this surprises me.
Unfortunately, once a scripted drama is in such a position, it's obviously hard to gain or regain viewers. The network certainly gave the second season of Jericho a big promotional push, and the 18-49 numbers were decent, but I don't think 7.2 million viewers will be enough to gain it a third season. I happen to like the show, trite or not, so I hope I am wrong.
Originally posted by pisher: Seriously, does anybody REALLY think a better night would help Jericho?
I think it might have fared a little bit better on Sundays than Tuesdays, but who knows. Despite its post-apocalyptic theme, Jericho, at heart, has been about the human drama of its premise. I'll be interested to see how the sliced-and-diced Dexter does in a timeslot often occupied by the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
