Jericho

CBS opened the evening with a repeat of NCIS (Viewers: #2, 11.72 million; A18-49: #3: 2.3/ 6), followed by the season-premieres of Big Brother and Jericho from 9-11 p.m. Although this first winter edition of Big Bothers (Viewers: #3: 7.33 million; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 6) dipped by 4.39 million viewers from the NCIS encore, it did manage to build by 17 percent among adults 18-49. So, there is still interest in the normally summer guilty pleasure. For more on my thoughts about Big Brother, click on marcberman.tv for today’s podcast.

Season two of Jericho dipped slightly from Big Brother, with 7.15 million viewers (#3) and a second-place 2.5/ 7 among adults 18-49 at 10 p.m. But given it did not have to face American Idol, the results should have been better. Keep in mind that Jericho debuted with a considerably stronger 11.66 million viewers and a 3.4/10 in the demo on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET. CBS might have been better off airing Jericho earlier.

Carol Barbee, executive producer of CBS' post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that this week is make-or-break time for the resurrected show--though she will try to find a new home for it if CBS goes ahead and cancels it after its current seven-episode second season runs its course.

"I think this next airing will probably tell the tale," Barbee said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Feb. 24, referring to the upcoming Feb. 26 episode, "Jennings & Rall." "Our numbers have been OK, [but] not great. Our [demographic] has been very good; they've been very happy with that. But we'll see. ... If we trend up this week, I think we'll look pretty good. If we don't trend up, or if we stay the same, I think we'll have to wait and see what they want to do with us. I mean, they're going to air all seven; it's just a matter of how they feel about producing more."

Barbee denied that CBS has told her the show is ending, notwithstanding speculation that the network has already designated the seventh episode the "series finale." (Just to be sure, of course, Barbee said producers have prepared two endings: one to wrap the series up and one with a bit of a cliffhanger that would propel the narrative into a third season.)

Just in case CBS does pull the trigger on Jericho, Barbee said she's already begun looking for a new home on cable television. "There were other people who were interested in us to begin with, and now, I think, with the whole nuts [fan] campaign, and also with the amazing reviews that we've gotten for these seven episodes, I feel like we have made this franchise more valuable to a cable network who would want to take us on as a niche market," Barbee said. (The "nuts campaign" was a successful lobbying effort by Jericho fans, who mailed tons of peanuts to persuade CBS to bring the show back after the network canceled it after the first season.)

"So I think it's very possible," Barbee added. "We obviously have a relationship now with SCI FI Channel, because they're running our previous episodes. So I think that's a natural place to start looking. But I think that ... there are other people who would be interested in the show if it doesn't continue on CBS." (SCI FI Channel hasn't said whether it would consider picking up Jericho or not at this point.)