In the series finale of the post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, in an offhand conversation, a couple of characters voiced one of the show's underlying points: Don't mess with the Second Amendment. That's notable not just because it's a departure from typical Hollywood politics, or because the episode aired shortly after the Supreme Court heard a landmark case on the right to bear arms. It also speaks to an ongoing theme of the show, the notion that the government can't always be trusted. And if that doesn't sound especially radical, think of how it was received by viewers. Even amid an unpopular war, in a country with no shortage of cynics, a show this doubtful of the government's intentions can't seem to draw a mainstream audience.
Jericho, which ended its run on Tuesday, did have a small, fervent base of support, but it never managed to break through. The show was cancelled for low viewership by CBS last spring, then resurrected for a seven-episode trial run after fans sent nuts to the network offices. (It was a reference to a we-won't-back-down slogan in the show, as well as to the Battle of the Bulge.) This season's arc - which drew even fewer viewers than last year's episodes - played out as a cautionary tale about the perils of a government that gains too much power. Like HBO's brilliant The Wire, which ended its fifth and final season this month, it was one of few TV shows to take a decidedly cynical view of the people in charge.
Most of the time, on TV, we get the opposite message. The detectives, lawyers, and forensic scientists of the enduring Law and Order and CSI incarnations are universally good. The fighting forces of CBS's The Unit sacrifice greatly to save us all. Even the corrupt cops on FX's The Shield are softies at the core, skimming off the top to pay for family essentials, such as private-school tuition for autistic kids. And though each season of Fox's 24 has its fair share of government high-ups gone bad, the traitors are always exceptions, destined to be caught. To the end, Jericho made no such promises. If The Wire was a real-time look at corruption and fatal compromise in Baltimore, Jericho was a worst-case-scenario fantasy, spelled out with intriguing detail. It began with a dread attack: 23 American cities destroyed by nuclear bombs. It asked what would happen next from the perspective of regular folks, represented by the good-hearted citizens of a Kansas town.
It's much easier, after all, to sell a show about charitable giving or cheerful redemption, preferably set to uplifting music. On ABC's Dancing With the Stars the other night, contestant Steve Guttenberg gushed about how nice this show was for America. And on American Idol this week, on-the-bubble contestant Kristy Lee Cook made a decent effort to have save herself by crooning Lee Greenwood's uberpatriotic God Bless the USA. That song has a widely perceived Second Amendment message, too. It's just a message that doesn't require quite so much thinking.
Geoff Berkshire from the LA Times has his own thoughts on the demise of Jericho. He outlines the prime reasons as:
The strike
Conventional wisdom reckoned that the WGA strike and the resulting dearth of scripted shows during the winter would help Jericho stand out among weakened competition. But the winter's reality-heavy environment might have made it even more difficult for Jericho to connect with audiences. Viewers were tuning out in droves and CBS took one of the biggest ratings hits among all networks, leaving a limited audience to promote the Jericho return to. Even freshly written episodes of Late Show With David Letterman struggled due to the overall decline in CBS viewership.
The time slot
CBS moved the series out of the family-friendly 8 p.m. hour to 10 p.m. and there's the possibility that many of the original viewers were unwilling to follow. In defence of CBS, part of the plan was to give Jericho an established lead-in. Unfortunately (due in no small part to the strike) that established lead-in was the sleaze-tastic reality show Big Brother 9, which had never before aired outside of the low-expectations summer season. The audiences were, to put it kindly, completely incompatible and for a few weeks Jericho wound up with slightly better numbers than Big Brother anyway.
The network
Everyone's favourite scapegoat. Clearly everything that went wrong with Jericho was entirely CBS' fault! Never mind that they took a big, and welcome, risk by bringing the show back in the first place. Let's face it, a serial drama was always going to have a rough go of things on the network's current schedule. Jericho didn't repeat its plotlines every week, or solve a problem within the hour, and that seems to be the only way to find success as a scripted drama on CBS right now. Hopefully the experience doesn't discourage the network from taking similar chances in the future, but stepping back and looking at the whole picture I'd say that both the network and the producers tried their best to make an unlikely marriage work. Some couples just aren't meant to be ...
Alternative means of viewing
Some people will point to how popular Jericho is with TiVo users, or how high it ranks among iTunes downloads, or how well the Season 1 DVDs sold on Amazon.com. That's all great as an after-market for a show that draws an audience to its ad-supported broadcast airings. CBS isn't HBO. The amount of people who watch on live TV (and the age and income level of those people) really does matter. And if you downloaded Jericho through BitTorrent, it's really not a good idea to go crying to CBS about how much you'll miss the show.
The fans
A controversial argument to be sure. But if only the Jericho fans had shown a little bit of passion ... oh forget it, no one's gonna buy this one.
The ratings
Last season, Jericho averaged 9.5 million viewers and a 2.8 in the 18-49 demo. This season, the show averaged 6.8 million viewers and a 1.9 in the 18-49 demo. The defence may raise mitigating factors, like the shady way Nielsen measures the audience or everything else mentioned above, but the bottom line is that those numbers are barely acceptable on NBC. On CBS, they'll get you a death sentence. Case closed.
Further reading: Sifting through the ashes
