Tag Archives: CBS

May 30, 2007 · 2:57 pm

‘Save Jericho’: IF Jericho is Renewed, What Timeslot is Best?

After posting my discussion of midseason shows earlier, I hopped over to the CBS Jericho boards in an attempt to figure out where fans of the show would rather be watching it. While there has been no confirmation of its renewal for a second season, a little bit of hypothetical optimism never hurt anyone. I had trouble finding a timeslot for the show in my head that would avoid strong competition and yet not be a complete dead zone, so I figure there’s no better people to refer to than the fans themselves. The following are the different options brought forward in that thread.

Wednesdays at 8pm

Pros: Kid Nation is likely to either end early or quickly, it’s the same as the old timeslot, early enough for families to watch.

Cons: Too early for people in Central Time Zone, competition with American Idol in the Spring, early hour limits producers in discussing and portraying certain issues.

Tuesdays at 10pm

Pros: Cane could possibly be canceled in the timeslot (CBS struggled to establish new dramas in it this year), late hour allows people to watch it live after work, decent lead-in with The Unit.

Cons: Families couldn’t watch it together, competition in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Boston Legal, Cane is perhaps CBS’ strongest drama prospect.

Sundays at 8pm

Pros: Viva Laughlin will be a tough sell for the network, it has a 60 Minutes lead-in, early for families.

Cons: The slot isn’t exactly big with young viewers, and it would be hard to crack into in the fall when NFL football airs on NBC. Also, it would have to deal with football overruns, which would make for wonky scheduling (A tough thing for a serial drama to overcome).

Fridays at 9pm

Pros: Moonlight could be axed early with poor performance, CBS is a consistent winner on Fridays with Ghost Whisperer and Numbers, established fanbase will follow show even onto a tough night, 9pm start time is a happy medium for families and other viewers.

Cons: Friday has limited viewership, and a 2nd season would struggle to gain much growth on the night when most are out and about.

There was some talk about Saturday Night (No new programming will air on Saturday Night for as long as we live, more than likely) and Monday (Comedy block is strong counter-programming) but I think the above four are the best options.

So, fans of Jericho, where do you think your show should be scheduled. Or, if you’re not a fan, where do you think a serial drama could find a safe haven on the 2007/2008 Schedule?

7 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Save Jericho

May 30, 2007 · 8:30 am

The Midseason Contenders: The Shows You Might Be Watching in January

It’s now been two weeks since the glut of Network Upfronts coverage, and I guess you could say I’m a little nostalgic for it. Gone are the days when breaking television news hits every hour, which is really quite unfortunate. However, in recent days there’s been some news about the one thing that networks are always unwilling to talk about: the midseason substitutes.

You see, each network knows that they’re not going to actually be able to hold on to all of their fall dramas and comedies, but publicly they need to talk about how awesome they are and how they’ll run for years and years and years! In reality, they’re quietly organizing possible replacements that could be plugged in by January. While some networks have actually scheduled shows at midseason, there is still the possibility that new pilots or existing shows could be picked up. So, let’s take a gander at all of these possible contenders to see where they might fight in should a space open up.

The Contenders

CBS

Swingtown

What is it: 70s-set drama about an apparently quiet suburb that, as new residents discover, is actually a swingin’ sex haven.

Where will it go: It will be scheduled at 10pm somewhere, based on its subject matter. Chances are that it would be a good fit on Sundays, but we’ll see how Shark does in the timeslot. Shark is a show that could easily be moved to fill in for a struggling drama, so it could give up its spot to the new show.

Chances of Midseason Placement: High. CBS is only saving the show until midseason so it can air uninterrupted through to May.

Jericho

What is it: Post-apocalyptic drama turned town survival drama that garnered a strong enough cult following to result in the Nuts for Jericho campaign of the past few weeks.

Where would it go: I really, really don’t know. This is a tough one: technically, the spot guaranteed to open up (Wednesdays at 8 after Kid Nation ends) could work well, but it’s also going to run right back up against American Idol. Meanwhile, there isn’t a whole lot left in terms of timeslots. If CBS really wants to try to take its cult following with it, they could plug it in on Fridays and hope that people show up. Still, it wouldn’t be easy.

Chances for Midseason Placement: The ‘Save Jericho’ movement is still fighting, and the campaign is gaining steam daily, but the deadline is two weeks before CBS loses the cast to other projects. That’s a short amount of time to convince CBS to make a huge commitment, and a late fall miniseries might be the more likely option at this stage.

Continue reading →

‘Save Jericho’: The Facebook Movement

As a university student, Facebook basically runs my life; it’s my #1 form of communication with some individuals, and can often become a rather alarming addiction when things slow down. However, it also has a fair amount of clout in terms of its status as the future of internet communication. Unlike MySpace, Facebook has a certain…I dunno, credibility to it. And as a result, it is the perfect medium to help spread the ‘Save Jericho’ message.

There are two groups to note:

First, Dan Eagleton created ‘Bring Back Jericho!’ over the past two weeks as an attempt to bring together fans of the show. Thus far, it has 450 members.

Now, however, Jeffrey Braverman (Of NutsOnline) has created his own group which will likely end up with a higher number of members: ‘Nuts for Jericho’ is yet another opportunity for the campaign to gain a base of support amongst a primarily young audience which represents a key demographic for CBS in this fight.

I think this should be an interesting test of Facebook’s ability to band together around causes. The campaign has thus far been fairly centered in Jericho message boards and blogs which have picked up and run with the story (Like Cultural Learnings). Can it extend into social networking, or will it be unable to make the leap?

Watch the groups, join the groups, and we’ll find out over the next few days.

1 Comment

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Facebook, Save Jericho

May 28, 2007 · 11:46 am

‘Save Jericho’: Why Ratings Are Not Jericho’s Friend

While I’ve been turning very quickly onto the positive side of the ‘Save Jericho’ campaign, this doesn’t mean that I have shied away from being critical or certain aspects of it. My criticism is an attempt to keep this campaign grounded, if you will, without losing sight of CBS’ flawed, yet substantiated, standpoint on this issue. It is for this reason that I must object to a recent list being posted as a way of supporting Jericho that I came across this weekend.

“For the first week of May, Jericho had more viewers than the following shows…

Family Guy
Simpsons
American Dad
Medium
The Entire NBC Thursday Comedy Lineup
How I Met Your Mother
New Adventures of Old Christine
ER
The Unit
Dateline
20/20
America’s Funniest Home Videos
Notes From the Underbelly
All the Law and Order shows

All these shows renewed, Jericho canceled.”

Now, as some have said, this is a very simple message that could be incredibly powerful…if it were not for the fact that parts of it are outright lies, it all ignores scheduling realities, and fails to recognize that CBS is an inherently different network than the others. It is an over-simplified list that only dilutes and weakens the complexity of the campaign. This campaign is trying to fight against traditional ratings barometers; this list accepts them, and puts key goals of the campaign in jeopardy. With tomorrow’s big New York City rally being planned, I would hate to see this campaign run off the rails with something this simple.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Ratings, Television

Tagged as CBS, Save Jericho

May 27, 2007 · 8:45 am

The Results are In: Nielsen Ratings Data for 2006/2007 Season

This list is long. This list is extensive. And I really want to know what this list means. Nielsen (Via The Hollywood Reporter) has released their data for every single TV show that aired in America this past season. It tells us where our favourite shows ranked, where much maligned shows ranked, and how scripted drama did against reality programming.And, it raises a lot of questions about this data that I think Nielsen might not want to answer.

For instance, does this list include repeats in its viewers averages? Because that’s the only way CSI (#4) should be beating Grey’s Anatomy (#6) in total viewers by my calculations. If so, this gives a distinct advantage to shows without repeats (Reality Shows, Lost, Heroes, etc.) or those shows which repeat extremely well (House, CSIs, etc.)

The major thing to watch for in the list is the difference between 18-49 numbers and viewership rankings. It rises many shows into positions of being picked up, even with lacklustre performances in viewers. Some show, like 30 Rock, are in the doldrums in terms of total viewers but shoot up into the Top 75 with adults 18-49, which got it renewed for a second season.

After a few formatting errors, I’ve realized that getting it to highlight canceled shows would drive me crazy, so just refer to your memory. And, either way, some will seem a bit strange. However, remember that these are averages, and don’t reflect ratings dropoff in their later episodes.

This is the case for Jericho, which clearly performed better than many canceled shows. However, CBS did cancel the better rated Close to Home airing on Fridays, so it’s not as if Jericho was the only victim of CBS’ extremely highly place high bar. It might as well be a pole vault at this point.

With the 2006/2007 season over, the industry trades are going right for ratings as their barometer of success. Outside of this post, I’m unlikely to do so as I go into my own year in review season. For now, check out the ratings for all of the dirt, and stay tuned for less quantitative analysis at Cultural Learnings.

‘Save Jericho’: Considering a ‘Jericho’ Miniseries

The ‘Save Jericho’ campaign has been going for a week and a half. The network is promising to consider fans’ cries for closure, which could mean a multitude of things. In my view, the fan response has been good enough that CBS will not suggest a simple interview with producers to let fans know how it would have ended. Instead, I believe that what CBS will suggest is a 2-hour movie which will complete the series quickly but in a more resolute fashion. Fans, clearly, are adamant that a second season is the only option: that there is no other way they will be satisfied. And this has been their focus: the message to fans is that, much like Jake facing the threat from New Bern, surrender isn’t an option.

What I want to consider here is whether or not a 4-hour miniseries would be surrendering. It has benefits for fans over a two-hour movie, and it has benefits for executives in a shorter shooting schedule. It provides CBS with an opportunity to test this fan support in gauging possible further extension of the franchise without risking it on a season order, while also providing producers more room to work with. I think that asking CBS to cough up a second season of the show is a lot, which is why I think that Jericho fans need to be prepared to compromise, not surrender. And I believe that a two-part miniseries is that compromise, and one that could continue the campaign’s momentum into the fall months.

Continue reading →

17 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Save Jericho

May 25, 2007 · 10:47 am

‘Save Jericho’: The Cowardice of Traditional Media

So, I’ve written extensively about the ‘Save Jericho’ Campaign, as have a large number of internet sites and blogs. This thing is only a week old, and already it has escalated into an internet phenomenon on the levels that were unfathomable when the show was canceled last week. And, it’s had an impact: CBS executives are apparently meeting this week, although the chances of a season two still seem fairly remote. However, there’s something that needs to be made note of: there has been little to no coverage of the ‘Save Jericho’ campaign in the “traditional” media.

This would be your newspapers. Your television stations. Your major media outlets for entertainment news. These sites? Aren’t quite as willing to jump on the bandwagon. Now, there have been some stories about it in more major news outlets, but there is a distinction that needs to be made.

Those outlets (New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune) are not reporting on the actual content of the Save Jericho campaign, but rather on its status as an internet phenomenon from a group of crazed fans [The New York Times walks a fine line]. They are not covering the ‘Save Jericho’ campaign as something real, something genuine, but rather as some sort of novelty. Now, for the sake of the campaign, this coverage is good. Major papers covering the story is getting press out there, and that’s a great start.

But these major papers are refusing to really pick up this story and run with it: they were unwilling to send media to cover the delivery of peanuts to CBS headquarters, they are tentative to actually talk to the people involved, and on the whole they’re reporting about the story instead of actually reporting the story itself. And when they do it’s brief mentions in their pop culture blogs, not actual articles. And I think there’s a reason for this:

Cowardice. I believe that they are unwilling to engage this campaign as an actual entity because it will be legitimizing the internet as a source of power in media. It will be legitimizing blogs, message boards, and everything else. To cover this campaign in the same way blogs have, these major papers would have to admit that they were scooped, that the same stories bloggers are writing about are worthy of their pages.

And that would change the mass media forever.

Continue reading →

11 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Mass Media, Save Jericho

May 23, 2007 · 8:48 pm

‘Save Jericho’: Much Ado About Peanuts [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Well, according to CBS, it appears that the peanuts are being given in a way quite similar to what was suggested here. Jericho fans = Smart, it seems, and CBS appears to be routing the peanuts for a good cause. This is a positive development, and considering that another 4000 pounds are on their way today [Maybe with media as well]…things aren’t done yet.

WCBSTV.com – ‘Jericho’ Fans to CBS: ‘Nuts!’

“CBS spokesman Chris Ender estimated Wednesday that about 300 boxes of nuts ranging in size from three pounds to 10 pounds had arrived.

“We’ve made arrangements for the bulk of the boxes to be picked up by Staten Island Project Home Front, an organization that focuses on fundraising and supporting military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Ender told wcbstv.com. “We’ve also made contact with the Bronx Zoo to see if they’d like some of these, as well as local homeless shelters and food banks.””

Sounds like they’re headed to a good cause. Let’s hope that CBS, in the process of this, understands what is going on here on a larger level.

And now back to regularly scheduled analysis.

Okay, so over the past few days I’ve been delving into this Jericho question, and the more I discuss it the more I sympathize with the show’s fans. Much of this has to do with their level of argument within the two past threads (To be found Here and Here), but I have to admit: a lot of it has to do with the peanuts.

That peanut side of the story is quite simple: Skeet Ulrich’s Jake said “Nuts” in the season finale (As part of some form of surrender: I need to watch this finale at some point, eh?), and fans have used it as their battlecry. “Nuts to CBS” is a common statement amongst the show’s fans, but they didn’t stop there. As opposed to just sending their thoughts, they decided that they should send something more tangible: peanuts. Hundreds, if not thousands, of peanut orders started flying off from various online peanut delivery companies…however, one took notice.

NutsOnline.com – Nuts for Jericho

It was NutsOnline that did so, and they’re now sending mass shipments to CBS, the first of which should have arrived recently (There is to be video confirmation later).

In the meantime however, I figure that there’s a question that should be answered:

What should CBS do with all of these roasted peanuts?

My personal suggestion is to provide them to the writing staffs for their new fall shows, but to then refuse to provide them water, holding them hostage until they put out scripts which are good enough to meet their approval.

So, does anyone else have any suggestions on what they should do with the nuts? Perhaps Ms. Tassler should make a honey-nut glaze humble pie? Got another recipe in mind? Have some fun with it, I’m sure that there’s plenty of imaginative minds out there.

13 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Peanuts, Save Jericho

May 23, 2007 · 1:37 pm

‘Save Jericho’: The ‘CBS’ Viral Conspiracy Theory

This will be a brief update, but it is something to consider. On the Official Jericho Boards, “colsteve” posted with news that someone apparently from CBS (Through StatTracker, this information was discovered) had arrived at their blog after searching for the following phrase:

“SAVE JERICHO CAMPAIGN FAILS”

That’s how it reads. First, let’s make this clear: there has been no official word as to the campaign’s success, and as a statement this is not true: the fight goes on.

Now, the theory is of course that CBS is trying to downplay the movement by spreading doubt as to its success. I think this is a little bit tenuous, however; that IP address could have been a mistake, the person could have been a low-level intern, and I don’t think there is any real justification in claiming that CBS is virally attempting to stop the movement.

That being said, I think it raises the interesting question: how ARE people reacting at CBS? It’s hard for us to imagine as non-executives, but for them this likely presents a huge public relations and media challenge, not to mention actually dealing with their coming development cycle. I almost can see why they would be interested in trying to start things in a viral fashion, because the traditional methods of damage control only work against much smaller “problems”.

Because the ‘Save Jericho’ campaign is a problem for CBS. Are these viral searches part of a vast conspiracy to undermine the NUTS drive? Theoretically. But, without actual proof, all we can do is wonder whether or not CBS is planning something substantial in response to it all. Perhaps we’ll see in the coming days.

6 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Save Jericho

May 22, 2007 · 7:47 pm

‘Save Jericho’: Addressing the Hiatus Hernia, The Idol Factor and Promoting the Unpromotable

In an ongoing attempt to provide some analysis of the fall of Jericho and the subsequent rise of its fans, I’ve been fielding a wide range of questions, comments, criticisms, and attempting to provide a perspective for them. I’ve dealt with CBS’ logic for the cancellation, along with documenting the rise of the ‘Save Jericho’ campaign; however, as many have rightly pointed out, I have yet to properly address the claim very succinctly stated in a comment on this very blog by James Denison:

“Jericho was an excellent drama that suffered from the 3 month hiatus, going up against [American Idol], and poor promotion by CBS.”

In doing so, I might have to defend certain decisions CBS made, and I think that this is just: the network is not entirely at fault here. But, by investigating these issues further, I believe that was can increase CBS’s accountability for their own role in this problem. What I want to investigate are the following series of questions:

– Why do shows go on hiatus, and what other options are available?

– If CBS had shifted the show’s timeslot to avoid Idol, what would the effect have been?

– Is Jericho an easily promotable show?

In answering these questions, I believe that we can further understand the series of events that took place, and delve yet further into the questions of New Media, New Advertising, and just about everything in between.