Happy New Years Jericho Rangers ~ a message from Redsox1986 concerning Jericho

A message from Redsox1986 ~

Hello Fellow Rangers, Happy New Year. Here is hoping that 2009 is better than 2008.



As the New Year Commences we find our selves wondering what if anything will happen with Jericho. As many have seen over the past 5 weeks the ratings have been consistent in the 1 million range on the CW with this past week ratings being 1,260,000 in the 7:30-8:00pm time slot. The lead in to the movie is important to the money people and the numbers are increasing each week as the 7:00-7:30pm slot has be interrupted by football.



The UHD commercial will have one more full week run on UHD channel starting on Monday January 5, 2009. I will get the schedule posted when I get the flight schedule from UHD channel. I understand from Denny that Jericho is not on the UHD schedule for January, so the CW will have the exclusive broadcast on television for Jericho episodes. More than ever we need to get bodies in front of the television on Sunday nights tuned to Jericho and the CW.



First and foremost, I think we all need to come to terms with how things stand right now. I keep hearing from people what is going on, why have we not heard anything from the producers in a long time or there has been no official word on Jericho’s status.



I believe that right now the producers, writers and actors are not involved in the fate of the show any longer. They have moved on to other projects because that is what they do. In my opinion we are not going to hear from Dan or Karim or any other producer regarding Jericho.



I know that Carol Barbee sent Shaun an email which he read on his show on December 22, 2008 Thank all the fans for their support. I hope they are enjoying the CW run of Jericho and assure them we're still working on a continued life of the series. What that means is not clear it could mean a graphic novel and/or a movie. It was the first thing I have seen in many months and again most including Carol have other shows they are developing/producing for CBS for the Fall Season.



The show is a commodity, something in the vault owned by CBS Paramount and they are the ones who will decide its’ ultimate fate. The producers and actors are not relevant to the financial decision makers, never have been. So with that I have stopped putting any stock in what they say or do not say.



Several things have kept me motivated to continue my efforts to continue the Jericho story. The number 1 reason are the people here in the Jericho Community. In the 9 months since the cancellation we have all gone through a lot together from the big projects like the tv commercial and bill board to the ads in variety.



We have also seen disagreements and arguments which cause many good Rangers to leave. But sometime back in August people chose to put those differences aside and the various groups started to work together to get Jericho back. The reason we are here today with Jericho back on the CW and with at least a chance to see the story continued is solely due to the fans and their efforts, writing cards, letters, faxes, watching Jericho on every platform imaginable



The second thing that has kept me moving down the path to continue the fight for Jericho is the business side of things. That is, CBS Paramount has made a business decision to put Jericho back on the CW to see what the ratings it generates and to see who if any network would be interested in it including the CW..



I think they made this decision for 2 reasons first the show continues to draw interest on the internet, at UHD, Fancast and other places. Second, the economy has a lot to do with what is going on, not just at CBS but for all networks facing shrinking ad revenues, viewers to other forms of distribution such as the internet, cable and direct tv. They are looking for cheaper alternatives to developing and producing new scripted shows during the current economic climate.



As I mentioned I believe the numbers people decided to give this commodity one more look to see if it would make sense to invest money in making a movie or producing more episodes and if so what is the Return on Investment (ROI) that is needed to justify making a movie and ultimately more episodes. I do not think that Carol, Dan or any of the producers were consulted or informed of the decision before the story came out in the media.



For the past several weeks a group of fans lead by Myvibes, NorsU, K6, CaseyDog, Nursevick, Rat Keeper and others have been putting together statistics, graphs and charts in an attempt to communicate with the ultimate decision makers, the bean counters that Jericho is a very viable commodity that people are willing to watch. We are trying to give the quantifiable data that they can use to justify an outlay of capitol to produce a show with a reasonable likelihood that they will get a return on their investment.



I posted the most recent letter that I sent to Nancy Tellem at CBS, Bonnie Hammer at NBC, Dawn Ostroff at the CW and Comcast which provides graphs and charts of the numbers. Youtube is at 1,100,000 views, UHD Board is approaching 17,000 posts, Jericho continues to hit the top 50 at Netflix and Joost.



Most important is the ratings on the CW. With the show starting its’ run for the first 5 weeks with significant spill over from NFL games, the holiday season, and terrible early winter weather the show continues to garner over 1 million Nielsen viewers. This past week the numbers shot up to 1,260,000 in the 7:30pm to 8:00pm lead into the movie.



The next 8 week are critical for us to have any chance to get a movie made which is the most realistic thing we can aim for right now. Getting people watching on the CW and on Youtube is more important than ever.



Just as important is to continue our letter writing, emailing, faxing and completing Feedback forms each week. CBS Paramount as well as the other Networks have people who do look at the letters and comment forms and who count them.



I have been going back around reporting the paragraph below which has the links and information that we are trying to get out there to get people to watch Jericho and to be counted.



If anyone wants to help you can simply copy and past on community boards, college boards or anywhere you think people will see it. I have been going around to newspapers for all 6 New England states and posting it to general forums as well as to tv and movie forums.



You probably have heard many times before people say I am just one person what can I do to possibly change something. When one person turns into thousands of people working together they can speak in one voice and they can change things. We need to continue to trust in one another and do what we can individually to contribute to the group as a whole. The sports term is a team is the sum of its parts, it is successful not because of a few superstars but because everyone does what they can to contribute to the collective good f the team.



No matter what happens over the next 4 months I want to thank all of you who have helped in any way the past 9 months since the March 2008 cancellation. The Holidays are over, football will be over soon and we have 4 months in which to be measured and counted. Let make each week count.



As always we need to Stay the Course and Keep the Faith.



Redsox 1986

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May this year bring to each of you what ever you wish and dream for, may it be full of blessings and no sorrow. And may you all remember how you made this all worth while, each and every fan.