PLEASE just WATCH the show!! And keep passing the word. You never know when someone will reach a Neilsen family. Wear your JERICHO t-shirts and put a sign on your car! Tell everyone that JERICHO is back!!
Plain and simple....If we don't get more people to watch the show, we won't have the show anymore.


"Make a stand here". Johnston Green R.I.P.

My response to the network execs: give your shows a chance and maybe I'll watch live. As it stands, I'm afraid to invest my time in a new show until after it's been picked up for season 2. From now on, unless the show generates a lot of buzz, I'm not watching season 1 of a new show until the second season starts. I'm sick of cliffhangers that don't get resolved.

Just bring the show back and leave it alone.

100% if my TV viewing is time-shifted. I will not watch live TV, even if it means a show I love gets canceled. Being able to watch on my schedule is more important to me than any show, period. And the market segment of people like me is constantly growing. Like it or not, the networks have to face the fact that DVRs are grabbing more of the market with each passing day, and the pace is accelerating.

The old business models are dying, if not dead. They will need to find new revenue models to handle the shift. Nielsen has some tracking of DVR users, but the ad buyers have resisted their use. They still insist on basing ad purchases off the 'live' viewing. So even though Nielsen does some measurement, it doesn't help unless the networks put their feet down and force the issue.

Last season ABC tried to force it - insisting on counting DVR viewers in the figures used for ad pricing. But NBC and CBS got cold feet and caved in. Initially they backed ABC, but they turned chicken, leaving ABC on their own - which was untenable, so they caved in too. The big networks could force the issue if they're stand their ground - it is their own damn fault that the ad buyers are raking them over the coals now. Maybe next year they'll grow a spine and stand firm.

Studies have repeatedly shown that the ad-skipping aspect of DVRs is blown all out of proportion. Most DVR users actually don't skip ads, and even more watch some ads. And TiVo provides data that is far more accurate than Nielsen - down the the second. TiVo can tell networks and advertisers exactly which ads are being watched and which are skipped, so ads can be better targeted. That's the way of the future.

Personally I skip almost every ad. But if an ad catches my eye, I'll stop and watch it. Ironically the best ads out there, the ones I'll stop, tend to be Geico (the gecko and the cavemen) and eSurance (Erin Esurance). But I live in MA, which regulates auto insurance prices, so it doesn't matter. If I move out of state, I'll check them out. :-)

I am an avid watcher of Jericho! Please keep the show on the air. I also tivo it in case I happen to be otherwise unavailable to watch it live. With tivo if you have shows which air at the same time and you have tivo you can only tivo two per time slot. I realize commericals are part of primetime tv on regular channels, but they have added some much more commerical time in to the programs it takes away from the show that airs during that time slot.
You get maybe 5 minutes of show and 5 or more commericals by the time you are back to the show you have to try and remember what has happened thus far. It makes the shows quality less with so many added commericals....

Savejake - Your a liar. Simple as that, you are a flat out liar. Its not even a good lie since you said "Advertisers are backing them" which is just stupid. Advertisers have nothing to do with either iTunes (no ads) or online viewers (sponsored separately).

Other networks bring back shows with fewer viewers because they aren't the number one networks so they can afford to. NBC can afford to bring back Friday Night Lights because even though its ratings challenged it isn't that much lower than everything else on the network.

It has nothing, NOTHING to do with other venues such as ipods and online viewers. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Seriously, why would you lie? Do you really think it serves your purpose to make CBS, the network that is the only chance for the show you seem to love, look bad by telling an outright lie?

CBS is the only network left that relies on Nielsen Ratings alone. ABC, NBC, and FOX have all brought back shows with much smaller ratings than Jericho because of IPod and digital markets. Advertisers are backing them and so are their customers...the television viewer.

My Prediction:

CBS will move it to a horrible timeslot that most people aren't home during, say friday or saturday night. Everyone will be dvr'ing it instead of watching it live or miss it all together because of the timeslot change. CBS will come out after the 2nd episode and say they are canceling it because of low numbers. The networks don't care about the programming they put out, all they care about is the advertising money they get. I seriously doubt the entire run will happen at all.

Okay, so we have one TV exec saying, "You want the show to survive - watch it live." Seems reasonable at first glance but it isn't. First, it is a request all broadcast execs might reasonably make - I leave out cable execs because cable tends to rebroadcast shows at various days and times while broadcast stations tend to broadcast once. So on broadcast TV I have one shot to see a show without regard to my work or family schedule and without regard to other shows I watch. One shot, a life, and nearly 100 channels. Yeah, right.

Instead of blaming TiVo for its problems, the broadcast execs should be blessing it. Even if TiVo means some of us skip commercials (I do about 1/2 the time) that is still more commercial exposure then I'd get without TiVo. Without TiVo (and the VCR before it) I saw almost no commercials - because I didn't watch TV. I don't work 9-5.

Keeping Jericho - or any other quality show - alive isn't my problem to solve. It is television's problem to solve. And in fact, if I don't TiVo the show to watch, since my household isn't a Nielson household, CBS would never know I watch Jericho. So no, I won't be watching it live and I won't be responsible for Jericho's death either.

Scramble the problem isn't the measuring. The problem here, with Jericho, is that it is now apparent that there CAN be a huge fanbase even though you don't see them because you can not count them. PVRs made it EASIER to record and watch later. In the past, you could easily own a VHS-Recorder and simply not catch all the shows you would record because they were so dumb that programming was such a hassle you'd rather use the time to put your ass in front of the TV than use that thing.

Now with virtually the computing power of a regular PC from 1999 in each of these PVRs with up to 500 hours of recording time, they have become so full of fuzzy logic and recording "Power" that it is finally possible to record the stuff you want recorded and watch later.

Nielsen is already "recording" this - they have this "rating".

What I GUESS is the problem is that people who watch shows later, recorded, are not as "valueable" for the advertising companies. I guess the networks get substantially less money for those viewers because, I guess, they negotiated those viewers to pay less but ADDITIONALLY because what is measured usually is the SHARE not the AMOUNT of viewers. I guess that most of the advertising contracts simply don't pay per capita but according to the share of viewers.

Anyway, it's basically THEIR problem not OURS but OF COURSE they want to shift the blame towards us. The technology is there, and while the RIAA manages to stifle the amount of media actually available via iPods and DRM the TV industry simply has no tools to keep us from recording because the VHS-Recorder was basically the same as a PVR but now it's _intelligent_ but no court would ban all PVRs now for their power because it's bascally the same but finally usable.

So - again - blame the networks. The problem simply is that networks live off of advertisement, while the movie and music industry live off of direct sales. We have to cut the networks some slack - they don't really have a clue what to do but we don't really either :-)