“Jericho – A TV show that made history”

“Jericho – A TV Show That Made History”

by cristyquire28 and scoobud3

**I had asked some fellow Rangers on the Nuts for Jericho Forum to lend me their views , their memories of the campaign to Save Jericho as a way to recap how we got to where we are tonight, so please read and enjoy! Thanks guys, great write up!**


Jericho, an ordinary TV show to entertain viewers on Wednesday evenings. So it seemed. Jericho was a show about family and community. It was a show about love and compassion for one another. It was about a community fighting and struggling to help any one, everyone after a nuclear detonation. It was a show about a community that pulled together to maintain civility where civility was absent. A small community learned to govern themselves and protect others who came from the outside seeking refuge.

When a neighboring town tried to overtake Jericho, the small band of Jericho citizens stood their ground against the oppression. The leader of New Bern called for the leader of Jericho to surrender, a one word reply was transmitted over the radio – NUTS! Just as the battle for the very right to exist, the screen goes black and the gun fire commences. That’s how the last episode of season one ended, the cliff hanger of all cliff hangers. The date is May 9, 2007.

On May 16, 2007, CBS dropped the bomb on its television viewers and devoted fans to the show Jericho. That's when CBS announced that Jericho will be cancelled and not be included in the new fall line-up.

By May 20, 2007, dedicated fans of the show Jericho united to protest the cancellation of their favorite show. An Internet radio show host began calling for all fans to launch a campaign against CBS for the return of Jericho. He suggested to the fans to send CBS nuts or peanuts as show of protest. The nuts are in reference to the NUTS reply during the last episode and to the one-word response to a German commander during World War 2.

A group of fans, world-wide, who have never met, came together in the virtual world of the Internet to launch a Save Jericho Campaign against a very relentless CBS. This group formed leaders that staged fall-back websites in the event CBS closed the Jericho message boards - the fans' primary center stage for reports and ideas. "Orders" as what was called by the group of fans that became known as the Jericho Rangers, were issued on a daily basis. Jericho Rangers obediently followed the orders above and beyond the call of duty.

Immediately, Jericho Rangers flooded email boxes of the executives at the CBS headquarters in New York and in Los Angeles, California. Thousands of letters were sent and voice mail boxes were all but overloaded with messages to bring Jericho back. CBS executives tried, to no avail, to change their email addresses and change their voice mail numbers. Because of the technological brilliance of a few Jericho Rangers, these changes were by-passed and again open to the fans.

A business man and elected official in Canada volunteered the use of his business and professional contact ability to launch an Advertising Campaign. Once again, Jericho Rangers pulled together to donate funds for this campaign. Thousands of dollars were contributed by fans world-wide to place full-page ads in The Hollywood Reporter, The National Enquirer and place on-line ads.

Another business man was contacted about the campaigns efforts and was asked for his support. The company was NutsOnline.com. The owner, who had known nothing about the show, quickly became a devoted fan and provided complete support to the cause. He allowed fans to order peanuts and cost and be shipped to CBS. Within a week, over 40,000 pounds (20 tons) of peanuts were shipped between the two CBS headquarter locations. The relentless shipment of peanuts all but shut down the shipping and receiving docks at the New York CBS headquarters.

In the heat of the Save Jericho Campaign, the fans whole-heartedly picked up an additional humanitarian campaign. Greensburg, Kansas was completely devastated by an F5 category tornado. The Jericho Rangers, in conjunction with the nutsonline.com formed the Rebuild Greensburg Kansas Fund. Again, Jericho Rangers answered the call. More than 20,000 dollars was collected for this wonderful cause.

Jericho fans all over made homemade videos to help promote the cause and posted them on various web sites such as You Tube and My Space.

Actors posted messages on the Jericho message boards thanking the fans for the support and devotion to the show. These messages only added fuel for the fans. They gave the fans the inspiration and energy to keep up the fight. Three of the actors made a video of their own back to the fans of Jericho and posted it on You Tube. The fans couldn’t be stopped now!

The Jericho Rangers relentlessly called, emailed and sent letters to their local affiliates asking for support. The campaign stirred up so much attention; every major news media outlet began covering the cause. They were interviewing key players of the campaign; different radio stations were interviewing many fans from their local areas.

When the campaign entered into June, fans started to raise the level of the campaign. Then on June 6th, the fans got their answer. CBS announced that Jericho will return. However, Jericho will return only as a mid season series with only 7 episodes. Although, the fans were ecstatic, a seven-episode mid season series is not satisfactory. Therefore, the fight continues.

In the mean time, CBS will air reruns beginning TONIGHT! YES! IT’S JERICHO FRIDAY!!!