Hey CBS: Keeping Promises

"CBS primarily made four promises to Jericho fans when they reinstated the series in June", says Rich Becker of Copywrite Ink.

"• Re-broadcast “Jericho” on CBS, which they did with an odd order, until the series was pre-empted by football.
• Stream online episodes and clips online, but without much marketing support for the varied platforms where you can find it.
• Release the first season to DVD on Sept. 25, which was postponed and lacked any substantial marketing support.
• Continue the story of Jericho in digital media, which they almost did but not in any real tangible sort of way."


In light of those facts what should we make of Jericho's season opener ratings?


"Maybe those ratings aren't all bad", says Rich Becker of Copywrite Ink. "They might even be good. Jericho outperformed all but one episode of "Cane," which was planned for this time slot this season for CBS.
What does that mean? Jericho is the better bet for CBS and next week's episode is reported to be even better.
That has to be the feeling at CBS as Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik, co-producers, took time out to mention CBS was happy with the numbers and committed. We shall see."
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Do you think CBS will be more lenient with Jericho this time around because Nielsen ratings remain flawed?


"I'm not so sure that CBS will be more lenient because of the flaws in the Nielsen system (I'm not so sure they, even now, consider them to be flawed), but I am pretty sure that CBS is going to give Jericho every chance before canceling it",says Amy Vernon of Remote Access. "Didn't they learn their lesson? But seriously, I read on someone's blog that this time slot is usually pretty bad for CBS, and Jericho's ratings in that slot were better than CBS has gotten there before; that will count for something.

And with the writer's strike, a lot fewer new shows are being added in the fall. So long as the ratings aren't bad, and the DVR+7 ratings jack up the ratings another couple million, I think there's still a decent shot at a season 3. However, I'm a rank amateur at all this, so what do I know?

Hope, as they say, springs eternal."
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Is it fair for CBS to consider only Nielsen numbers?

"No, it is not fair" says a media consultant who wishes to remain anonymous. "The Nielsen ratings system is so far outdated and, in my opinion, has never been an accurate way of counting viewership of any program. In this day of new forms of media and methods in which one can view programming, it is obsolete. Millions of viewers don't get counted. But if we are talking about simply watching our TVs when a new episode of a show airs, I for one have never liked the Nielsen system of having one family determine what several thousand other households are viewing. Unless I'm failing to understand how this can possibly work with any accuracy, it's just simply not an accurate way of counting viewers. It's an unfair system and while it's good they are now counting DVR recordings, it's not enough. I believe it would be in the networks best interest to look at other ways of determining if a show they've invested in as well as the fan base of those shows' viewership get counted properly and fairly before making the decision to pull the plug. The history making grass roots campaign done by the millions of Jericho fans should be a really big wake up call that times are and have changed and before we shoot ourselves in the foot, take a good hard look at what we need to do to create a new ratings system and apply it.

We should all have our own voice in rating a show as it airs like we do when we go to the polls to vote in elections. This is America where every individual choice should be counted."
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Let's remind CBS that we ALL want to be counted. They know we're here. Are you going to count all of us this time CBS?