The TV Addict 

Attention network bigwigs. CouchTater here. And while I’m sure you don’t really care as you look down from your big black Hollywood towers, I’d like to just point out a few things to y’all.

First, to Showtime president of entertainment Bob Greenblatt. I know you’re real excited about that spin-off of THE L-WORD that may or may not get the go-ahead (the pilot is only now being edited). But agreeing with reporters that it sounds like “a female OZ” why not give credit where credit is due and admit that it sounds like a PRISONER CELL BLOCK H ripoff… er, homage.

iFMAGAZINE.COM is reporting that former JERICHO executive producer Jon Turteltaub is developing a big-screen flick around the twice-failed series. I don’t want to call the man delusional, but he thinks if reruns of the series on the CW are “like this remarkable success”, it might get another shot at life on a network. And did we mention he’s developing a feature film? Dude, give it up.

New York’s Daily News says that by adding judge Kara Dioguardia, AMERICAN IDOL has “finally found its mean girl.” Yeah, cause that’s what the show needed. To be meaner.

PRISON BREAK’s executive producer told Entertainment Weekly that they were ending the show because nobody wanted it to “become a parody of itself.” Um, too late.

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In a statement released today [which as we all learned from THE WEST WING is the day you announce bad news hoping nobody will notice], CBS revealed that Tuesday’s episode of JERICHO will be its last. Said CBS entertainment boss Nina Tassler in a statement just released, ”The March 25th episode of Jericho will be the series finale. 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.”

While this news was undoubtedly not the Easter surprise JERICHO fans were hoping for, this TV Addict has to give CBS some credit for doing what very few networks bother to do. Not only did they listen to their fans, they put their money where their mouth is and gave fans a second season of JERICHO, ensuring a proper ending for the show. Tuesday’s finale should tie things up nicely and that’s more than can be said for a lot of brilliant but cancelled shows.

By: Amrie Cunningham

Tune in tonight to JERICHO’s second season premiere on CBS. It’s easy to understand, it’s a fun watch, and even if you’ve never seen the show, there’s plenty of exposition that will get you caught up in no time.

I will be the first person to admit (and I’ve done this on many occasions) that I didn’t watch JERICHO when it premiered last year. In fact, I only really started watching it as a New Year’s Resolution for the theTVaddict.com. But something happened in my marathon viewing of the show – I got hooked on these people and their town. It went from being a show about what happens when a bomb lands right near our town and Jake is our hero and golden boy, to being a show about how can Jericho survive, how can the people in the town make a better life, a new life, a different life for themselves?

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ET Online is reporting that Mandy Moore has signed on to guest star as Ted’s first post-Robin girlfriend on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. Or as co-creator Carter Bays puts it, “the ultimate bad decision.” First, Robin Sparkles, now Mandy Moore — who knew ‘guy-next-door’ architect Ted Mosby had it in him. Or as Barney might put it, “High Five!”

The TV Zone is reporting that JERICHO is getting ready to hold a fan convention in Oakley Kansas on September 14-16. First an OFFICE convention in Stanford, now a JERICHO convention in Oakley Kansas. Great, two cities I couldn’t find without the help of Google Maps. Forget Oakley and Sanford, call me when LOST has a convention in Hawaii. There’s a convention I’d sell my TiVo to attend.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, CBS has signed a deal to make an American version of the BBC hit THE WORST WEEK OF MY LIFE. Or as Lindsay Lohan calls it, last week.

On Friday, CBS re-aired the series premiere of JERICHO. The show’s return drew a rating of 3.2/6 at 9PM, which in plain english means ‘good enough to win it’s time-slot.’ Congratulations goes out to the fans of JERICHO — who not only saved their show, but helped lead CBS to a ratings victory on a slow Friday night.

Yet being the ‘glass-half-empty’ type of TV Addict, we can’t help but wonder how many of the viewers that tuned in Friday night were new to the show? While it’s great that JERICHO has a core audience of fiercely loyal fans, the key to the show’s long term success (ie. seeing a full second season) is attracting a much larger audience. Was ‘Nuts for JERICHO’ a flash-in-the-pan movement or did television viewers really sit back and wonder, “Hmmm, I probably should give this show a second look.”

If you were new to the world of JERICHO, post away in the comments below and let us know what you thought. Missed the premiere? It’s not too late! You can download the series premiere of JERICHO for free on iTunes by clicking here.

JERICHO Fans, it’s official… Congratulations. We at theTVaddict.com are most definitely impressed. More importantly, your dedication to JERICHO has landed you a new fan in the media. As of this moment (8:15PM on Wednesday June 6), this TV Addict promises to catch up and finish the entire first season of JERICHO prior to the second season premiere. Any show that can generate this must passion is no doubt worth a second look in our books.

In case you missed it, below is the official renewal notice from CBS president Nina Tassler.

Wow!

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of “Jericho” for mid-season next year. In success, there is the potential for more. But, for there to be more “Jericho,” we will need more viewers.

A loyal and passionate community has clearly formed around the show. But that community needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available.

We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks.

At this time, I cannot tell you the specific date or time period that “Jericho” will return to our schedule. However, in the interim, we are working on several initiatives to help introduce the show to new audiences. This includes re-broadcasting “Jericho” on CBS this summer, streaming episodes and clips from these episodes across the CBS Audience Network (online), releasing the first season DVD on September 25 and continuing the story of Jericho in the digital world until the new episodes return. We will let you know specifics when we have them so you can pass them on.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of “Jericho” in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler

President, CBS Entertainment

P.S. Please stop sending us nuts

According to TVGuide.com’s Michael Ausiello, CBS is on the verge of resurrecting the recently canceled JERICHO for at least eight episodes, possibly starting at mid-season.

If this rumour turns out to be true, this TV Addict applauds the dedicated fans of JERICHO who have managed to do what so many fandoms have failed to do — resurrect their cancelled show (see: EVERWOOD, VERONICA MARS and ANGEL to name a few.) Hopefully when the time comes to fight the next big cancellation battle, JERICHO fans will share the secret to their success. Or at the very least, the incriminating photos I can only assume they have of CBS president Nina Tassler.

Who knew JERICHO had so many dedicated and vocal fans? In the few days since CBS announced their new fall schedule (which didn’t include JERICHO), we at theTVaddict.com have been inundated with emails about the series abrupt cancellation. Turns out we’re not the only ones.

In an usual move, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler took the opportunity to speak to fans directly on the official CBS JERICHO Message Board:

We have read your emails over the past few days and have been touched by the depth and passion with which you have expressed your disappointment. Please know that canceling a television series is a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people at the Network, the production company and the incredibly-talented creative team worked very hard to build and serve the community for this show — both on-air and online. It is a show we loved too.

Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story.

Sincerely,
Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment

Having fallen victim to the network axe more times than we care to remember (EVERWOOD, FIREFLY, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT to name a few), we at theTVaddict.com appreciate a great fan campaign. So in an effort to do our part, we thought we’d take this opportunity to link to a few sites where you can help out the cause.

Jericho Lives
Save Jericho Now on MySpace
Save Jericho Petition

And remember, while JERICHO may not have been YOUR favourite show. This could happen to you! So take a moment to send an email, write a letter and help stop yet another quality television show from being replaced by reality TV.

Remember my New Year’s Resolution to get caught up on Jericho before the winter premiere?

Thanks to the awesome people at CBS, I’ve gone one step further. Not only did I watch the first 11 hours saved on my TiVo. I had the pleasure of watching Wednesday’s winter premiere and it’s official – I’m addicted to Jericho!!

For those of you who were in my boat, having missed the whole fall season (but you haven’t yet caught up), I wanted to get you all ready for Wednesday’s big premiere.

With that, here’s a little “Who’s who?” of the people that make Jericho what it is (I put together a little chart with who is connected to whom, and how; do yourself a favor and click here to print it out!)

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The things we here at thetvaddict.com won’t do for you people! As an experiment, we had an intrepid correspondent sit through the “special episode” of JERICHO which aired this past Wednesday in an attempt to see if someone who had never seen the show before could, in fact, pick up enough information on the post-nuclear drama to jump into the action when new episodes return this week.

In the past, we’d seen similar glorified clipfests slapped together by the makers of LOST and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, each ostensibly designed to help newbies jump into the continuing storylines (although, in reality, we suspect they’re produced as a ploy to slap the words “new episode!” into advertisements and have yet another extra for the inevitable DVD). But having already been fans (or at least, in this period of disenchantment with LOST, viewers) of the shows, it made sense that these “catch-up” entries would prove simple and accessible.

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