Open Letter To CBS:
There is disturbing news in the Jericho Universe today and I hope you, CBS, are already aware of the problem. If not, please keep reading.
First, let's talk pre-emptions. There have been three in the past three weeks. Do you know that one of your affiliates aired an Infomercial last night instead of Jericho? How does Nielsen rate that when you're not given the chance to choose to watch Jericho?
Here's the complaint I found on the CBS message board this morning:
" WXVT Greenville, MS said CBS had pre-empted show with Time-Life Infomercial....???? Did CBS pre-empt Jericho, or is the station lying? Can they do this? Can they arbitrarily show something else other than what CBS sends out? How can we get Jericho????? shown in our area? This show is supposed to be Prime Time...not some stupid informercial!!!"
***How about it, CBS? Did you know? Where are the numbers from Greenville for Jericho? More viewers who can't be counted because they were excluded.***
I decided to do a little digging for myself. Oh, no Jericho next week because it's being pre-empted by football. Oops, here comes another pre-emption on August 24th for football. What would you like me to tell the new viewers I've lined up for you? Too bad you didn't take the opportunity last night to announce the change in schedule. You think new viewers will consider that to be an example of "CBS Cares"? I don't think so.
Here's another fan comment from the message board:
"This is getting ridiculous. Did we save this show only for CBS to run back into the ground. I recruited 4 or 5 new people to watch the show and then CBS just skips half of last season. WHAT ARE THEY DOING. Besides making my blood pressure shoot up. Good thing CBS is on the stock market, because with management like that they would go out of business."
Another one:
"I've noticed after the last two episodes there were no previews for the next week.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it possible that my local affiliate is not showing the preview?
It seems to me that it would go a long way to let people know what is going on next week and also to let people know that there will be another episode. Especially for those who are new to the show."
How about this one?
"I keep seeing these threads every week including tonight where people are saying that Jericho is suddenly preempted in their areas and replaced with different shows or sports on TV at the last minute when it was originally scheduled to be on..."
" My concern is, if the local CBS affiliates in different areas are doing this every week at the last minute without warning, how can it NOT have a bad effect on the ratings. If it is not broadcast in several areas where there are several thousands or even millions of people who planned to watch it, then they can’t watch because it is not on, obviously has to cut down on the number of viewers in the ratings. Could it be that is why Jericho is not performing well in the ratings the last few weeks, because millions of people can’t watch it."
Finally, here's a good one:
" I do think this will affect the ratings and I can't understand CBS's thought process. Airing the pilot, and then skipping episodes 2-11, airing 12, skipping 13, airing 14-17, skipping 18, and I'm only assuming they will broadcast episodes 19-23 in order. The post from Nina Tassler said "we have a long way to go", meaning the ratings, implying it is up to the fans only to get better ratings. At first I did believe this, but now I feel CBS is not committed to Jericho. How does CBS think the ratings will improve if they only air episodes out of order and not continously? I would think new fans are very confused. Ms. Tassler, I think you and CBS have "a long way to go" in maintaining your integrity with the fans!"
** Nina, we do appreciate all you've done but you asked us to get new viewers, which we've done, then you shoot us in the foot. We were worried about the Nielsen's only to realize we still have to worry about CBS.**
Interesting article from The Museum of Broadcast Communications
9 comments:
Excellent points and CBS needs to address this issue immediately. If I plan to watch a show CBS is scheduled to broadcast, and my local affiliate pre-empts that show, they've alienated a CONSUMER--BIG TIME.
So do we have to start the fight all over again? WE ARE LIVING UP TO OUR END OF THE DEAL BY WORKING TIRELESSY TO RECRUIT NEW VIEWERS--WHAT ARE YOU DOING, CBS?
Well as many of you know...I have never thought that anyone was fighting to keep Jericho alive except us fans. Ms. Tassler's messages are nice but they are PR and you have to read between the lines. My objective was always to make enough noise, create enough viewers, that CBS will not be able to pull Jericho again.
Maybe now others will understand what I've tried to delicately point out. We were given the full responsibility to keep Jericho ALIVE. If Jericho only gets 7 episodes...CBS gets DISCONNECTED.
They have done some great work with our Jericho boards...Now when is the last time you have seen a spot on your affiliate for JerichoRises.com???
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You both make excellent points. Thanks for commenting. Other than your concerns, which I share, I continue to worry about the fans who seem to think there is no work left to do. We have to work harder.
It is so hard to believe that CBS could pump us up to let us down once again. Deep in my heart I always felt that CBS gave us the 7 episodes to shut us up so we would stop sending nuts & to end Jericho giving us a sense of closure.
I have never seen such a fan base working so hard for a series to be kept alive...While shows like the Unit or Shark are on without issue!
I really think that CBS thinks that we will go down easier with the bone they threw out to quiet the dogs for the moment. I too have gotten family members to watch Jericho & only get 1 episode in on tv to find that the next one was prempted. Luckily they were excited enough to watch the rest on innertube...but not everyone has that option either!
CBS please contact your affiliates to see what the madness is about.
We (the fans) have lived up to our end of the bargain to do everything we can to promote Jericho. I personally have worked harder and spent more money to promote Jericho than I worked/spent to save it.
Now CBS we certainly appreciate you for bringing Jericho back and all that you have done so far to promote the show. But having Jericho pre-empted at the last minute for an infomercial is treachery. Now I understand that you mush pre-empt for football but why didn't you let the viewers know when Jericho would be return at the end Friday nights broadcast. Why aren't you promoting the show or website anymore? Why are you not promoting the video release? Please CBS the fans can't do it all - live up to your end of the bargain.
So CBS, after what you put us through, canceling our show without warning, you totally lost our respect, then you renewed it and got our respect back. Now after telling us it is up to us to recruit new viewers and we are out here working our arses off to do that, and what are you doing? setting it up to fail.....
CBS if you are listening, what are you doing here? I mean, prescheduled sports events, okay, acceptable. But sticking on an infomercial or some B movie from 30 years ago in place of a prime time show falls into the realms of bizarre. I know some local affiliates do what they want to but GET REAL! Whole families popped popcorn and gathered round the TV to watch a "Time Life Infomercial". I bet that made your ratings hit the roof.
I was worried about CBS' commitment to Jericho almost as soon as the elation at the renewal wore off. It's bad enough to break up the smooth-flowing ensemble cast, but please don't pare Jericho down anymore! We are going to risk losing all the "special flavorings" that made Jericho so unique. It's perfect as it is. The newbies I got to watch are confused. Now combining 22 episodes into 7? I'm afraid it's going to have the same effect. The relationships, the unanswered questions, the tension - it all needs time to simmer and I'm afraid we are rushing it. So many series took one or two years to hit their stride and were still going strong 9-10 years later. That's a lot of money to make in future advertisements and eventual DVD sales. CBS, Jericho may be that kind of show, but we will never know if you don't give it the airtime it needs for people to connect with it in the first place. Invest more and net more!
Thank you for bringing light to a very troublesome trend. I too have been concerned about the true intentions of CBS. I am extremely upset that the show is being pre-empted. Another thing that is irritating me is that the ads we were seeing for Jericho on CBS seemed to have almost disappeared! Where are the great commercials CBS was running to help recruit new viewers??? I learned my lesson the first time...you can't trust CBS. I will not rest in my fight for Jericho until we are in season 3, 4, 5, and more and going strong! The success of Jericho has been in our hands all along. That's why I'm STILL proud to be a Jericho Ranger, fighting hard every day to keep Jericho going strong!!
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