A Look At Jericho: What Went Wrong?
March 24, 2008 by brian
In a TV landscape littered with reality shows, revamps of old hits and spinoffs of current ones, Jericho was a much-needed respite from the same old-same old. So why is tomorrow’s episode the series finale? Here are a few reasons:
1. They Canceled It Once – Yes, it’s true that CBS brought the show back after one of the most passionate campaigns in history. They should be lauded for doing so as they could have greenlit CSI: Secaucus. But Jericho’s ratings this year never equaled even last season’s highs. That means thousands of once dedicated viewers weren’t going to give CBS another chance to let them down. And you can’t blame them for that.
2. Lack of Promotion – If you’re going to give a show another shot, make a big deal about it. We should have been hearing at least as much about Jericho as we do about Two and a Half Men or the Young and the Restless. What Jericho’s viewers were able to accomplish last season doesn’t happen. We should have heard a lot more about it. The latest Survivor castoff shows up all over the place and that show doesn’t need the publicity half as bad as Jericho did. Bringing a show back from the dead but never taking the steps to get it off life support is counterproductive.
3. Hard for New People to Get Into – Lost and Battlestar Galactica have the right idea. You begin the new season of a sci-fi show with a recap show that allows anyone to pick up on the first few seasons. In Jericho’s case, that wouldn’t have been hard. NBC and Sci Fi Channel ran Heroes marathons. And yes, I get that Heroes is a runaway hit show. As it was, anyone trying to get on the Jericho bandwagon now got treated to a well-written, well-acted and well-directed show that was nearly impossible to follow.
4. Too Many Cheaper Alternatives – I don’t mean to keep bashing reality TV. I actually love shows like American Idol. But dramas cost lots of money and it’s too easy to put on a show like Big Brother that can draw better numbers for a fraction of the cost.
5. The Writers’ Strike – It’s hard enough to keep a show’s momentum going when it hasn’t been canceled. Ah well, at least it will have a full second season - wait, it won’t. Would Jericho have gotten the boot even with a 22-episode second season? There’s every reason to expect it would have. But the strike was just one more thing that went wrong for a show with such great potential.
We can still hope that some other network picks Jericho up. Perhaps with a fresh start and a full season commitment the show can truly blossom. TV needs more imaginative, inspiring shows like Jericho.
Photo Credit: ©2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
Good thoughts!
My reasons for the shows failure:
#1 – Jericho’s debut numbers were terrific. A network should NEVER take that for granted and have a 3 month hiatus for a freshman show, then bring it back after such a long time against American Idol.
#2 – When you cancel a show then bring it back, there’s a lack of viewer confidence the series will remain, especially after such a small, 7-episode order. Most new viewers didn’t want to get sucked into a plot for a dying show.
#3 – The series should have given a convenient explanation for the bombs going off and then concentrated on the complicated task of rebuilding a country and the town. There was enough meat there to go for at least two season. Then, if desired, a more complicated bombing scenario could have been “discovered” later in the shows run as the recovery was well underway. As it was, there were just too many threads going in too many directions.
I’ll finally watch the finale tonight… I think the second season was a completly different show. They lost lots of the dynamics. With the town’s father figure and former mayor gone, and the fact that his wife and the deaf sister weren’t on till later shows and the flat performances by “jake” this year, got season two so deep into a ditch they could get out.
I thought the same thing about the second season of Dark Angel way back when, but after a recent rewatch of the whole thing I had other opinions. So who knows.
The next to last episode of Jericho has been the best so far in the season. I hope the finale is good.