Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Jericho or bust: I say bust.


On Friday the producers of Jericho took out a full page ad that looked kind of like a real estate ad. "Jericho and more than 6 million fans need a new home. Incredible storyline to continue. Network needed. Loyal fan(s) will follow."

Nice work on making it look like a real estate ad during the biggest housing slump in years. But they are not far off.

The value of the property has gone down. It's not worth what it once was. When CBS brought it back the ratings were worse than the year before. That meant that not all of the loyal viewers that sent peanuts to CBS went back to the show.

The first part worked. You got them to put the show back on the air. That's very hard to do. Usually a show has to show promise to get another season. But then the ratings went down. After convincing the networks, the loyals needed to get new viewers. Take some of that letter writing/website making energy and put it into getting more viewers. Maybe send people at home peanuts.

Maybe you can use your efforts to getting wi-fi on the bus.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Media Yenta! Not to rain on your uneducated parade....but the "producers of Jericho" had no part in taking out this ad. This was an an effort by Jericho fans. As to 'loyals' getting new viewers, the fans will get right on that! Regular, every-day people who have jobs, kids, responsibilities, and a significant lack of CBS-like financial resources should have absolutely no problem scaring up the 3-4 million more viewers that the network failed to produce.

Come on! Cut some slack here...Jericho fans are loyal and have never wavered. They've expended time and effort that's been unprecedented. They deserve credit, not a bashing, for taking on promotion/marketing efforts that were sorely lacking by the network. In the meantime, we'll be working on that bus wi-fi thing for ya -- it should be no more difficult than the other duties that were unceremoniously dropped on Jericho fans.

Anonymous said...

And, CHO, don't forget World Peace! That's next. LOL

N2N2

Rosalind Van Landingham said...

The name of your blog would seem to indicate that you specialize in media. I certainly hope that is not the case, because I can't even imagine what kind of ignoramus would assume the highly skilled producers of a show would take out an ad.

It is so apparent you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to television, that I don't feel the need to expound on the previous post any further. You should probably stick to your local neighborhood gossip, as anything media-related is far beyond your conceptual abilities.

Anonymous said...

If you had bothered to go to the website listed in the ad you would have seen that this was a fan initiative. Please correct you post! Thank you!

Brat said...

Check your facts, this ad was paid for by Jericho fans

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a compliment to the fans that you consider this was done by a professional corporation.

Gwen
http://www.jericho-kansas.com

Anonymous said...

This ad was paid for entirely by the fans of Jericho. That's right, we raised more than $11,000 to place this ad in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Says so right there in the website that the ad so kindly directs people to for more information. The producers had nothing to do with this. Please, before writing something do a little fact checking, especially if the resources are provided for you. Thanks for the added press though, every little bit helps!!

CC News Feeds said...

I'm not bashing the fans. You got it back on the air, that was teh time for you to help promote it. If the show kept up the ratings or went up, CBS would have kept it. But the ratings went down - implying that not all the fans came back.

Now you want someone else to take that chance. If Sci-fi takes the show and they only get half the 6 million dedicated fans, that's great for them.

The challenge is that it's a two time loser. That's the challenge.

Plus, will the cast and crew still be available? Will they work for less pay?

I think helping promote the DVD of season one and/or season would be a great start. That would show the buyers that there's a growing interest.

Yes, It's different that it's a fan ad than it being fromt eh producers.

Did they ok it? Did they ask you to do it?

Anonymous said...

"Nice work on making it look like a real estate ad during the biggest housing slump in years."

Is this sarcasm? Since this ad was paid for by the fans, I'd have to disagree that you aren't bashing the fans...

"The value of the property has gone down. It's not worth what it once was."

As with the real estate market, the true value has not decreased, other market factors simply make it appear that way. With Jericho, its value didn't decrease, Nielsen just made it appear that way. CBS put it in a horrible time slot, and did next to nothing to promote the show so of course some viewers didn't make it back, they didn't even know about the return of those 7 episodes, and many of those that did, couldn't be available at 10 pm and had to watch on their DVR or online or by download.

Anonymous said...

Here's the way I see it...the Jericho fans were pretty darn smart to come up with this initiative. Have you done your homework? It seems that EVERY show in that time slot has tanked and had ratings lower than Jericho...did you happen to check the ratings of Jericho in the alternate viewing methods? Pretty amazing numbers.
Don't forget to proof read your blogs...you seem to misspell when you are angry.

Anonymous said...

have to say, logic is somewhat flawed. I know for a fact I "hooked" at least five households with Jericho. Making the fans find new fans is not the problem. Now, had someone given me a list of Nielsen households, I would have sent them peanuts and the first season. It doesn't matter how many new fans the fans get for the network, unless they are Nielsen households. Just sayin'...

vader0309 said...

No the producers didn't ask us to do it. We did it because we wanted to. CBS doesn't know how loyal we are. The thing is, most shows have slumped since the strike. Also you have to look at the timeslot. since judging amy all shows in that timeslot have been canceled.

CC News Feeds said...

I agree with the person before Wildman without a name. It would take more Nielsen homes to keep the show on. Peanuts to their houses would've helped.

Now I think the answer is DVD sales.

I'm glad to know it was the fan not the producers that took the ad. Remember when you are done with saving Jericho, I need Wi-fi on the bus and then world peace. And maybe a spell check.

Anonymous said...

First and foremost your facts are wrong you need to change it. Second I think that the current rating system is out dated and has not been right for years. Third this is 2008 we lives are a lot more hetic than the were 30 years ago. I believe that advertisers need to realize that for one since the invention of the remote Most people will flip from station to station to station while comericals are on. Two CBS as Well as other networks over the last couple of years have noticed a decline in viewership and revenue and that is because the have Alienated the viewer who knows unlike 30 years there are far to many things to watch and when you have been burned over and over again you will go somewhere were your viewing will be appreciated!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

yenta, DVD sales wont help either. Season 1 DVD sales were reportedly very poor (under 100,000 sets sold since last September). With a 25% viewer loss vs. Season 1, I dont see how Season 2 DVD's will beat even that low number. Shows like Battlestar routinely sell 500,000+ per season. Some sell millions. CBS took a chance to see if a grassroots fan campaign could grow the fan base - the exact opposite happened. Even SCI-FI tried rerunning Season 1 - they dumped it after airing only 15 episodes of the 22 in February and March due to poor ratings. Jericho is done, stick a fork in it.

Anonymous said...

I cant believe fans threw away 11 grand for this ad. The point about it looking like a real estate ad in a bad real estate market is spot on. Whoever came up with that idea thinking it would get someone to buy the franchise needs their head examined. Network execs dont buy shows based on silly things like that. I was a fan of INVASION and they flew airplane banners all over LA - it was laughable. They would have been better off using the money to buy DVD's, though with the plunge in ratings I doubt that would really help. Jericho was a decent show it just didnt have broad enough appeal. Season 2 catered to paranoid nuts on the left and right that think big bad evil government and corporations are all out to get us. Season 2 lost that small town feel and was generally a disappointing rushed mess with more plot holes than 20 tons of swiss cheese. The ending was stupid. At least they could have set off the nuke.

Anonymous said...

To all that read this I think Season two was as Great as it could be. It definitely was a rollercoaster ride!! For some I understand that you were dissapointed but realize that it is CBS's fault they only gave in because they were tired of all of the peanuts. They only did 7 episodes trying to give some resolve to a story line that was going to have to change to the bigger picture. CBS stuck it in the worse time slot they could have. So what viewers were family oriented they could not make it family time so that left them out and the funnier thing is that everyone I brought to Jericho said for them that time of night was not the best. Most of these people work 50 to sixty hours a week. Usually long days such as 10 to 12 hours if work. I know that they watched it me live because the next day for lunch we discussed what had aired the night before . Last comment The cast and crew and everyone that was involved with this second season you guys totally rocked!!!!!!. That is why i will keep fighting for Jericho.

Anonymous said...

CBS never gave Jericho a chance.

Jericho has a HUGE fan base on tv, and online, but of course online viewership doesn't count to CBS. Neither do the fans that don't have Nielson boxes but watch it anyway.

The 1st season "hiatus" was a joke.....no warning it was coming, and many fans missed it when it returned because of poor advertising on CBS's part not to mention new day/time.

And with Season 2......they put it on as late as they could, after the worst show ever. Sorry, but Big Brother is scraping the bottom of tabloid television, and many viewers were lost because of it. Again, new time, new date. Helloo? CBS, you home?

And don't get me started on Kid Nation.

KIC said...

Now that you know the producers did not fund this or have anything to do with it, you should correct your post.