Watching Jericho

Did you see? Go to the Official CBS Jericho site and scroll down to “Jericho Links”. I’ll wait here while you go look.

SQUEEEE!

This blog got linked by the official site. I’m completely and totally flabbergasted!!

Jericho, shaunomacradio, TV, television, CBS

Esai Morales, who has been seen all over the place, but most recently in “NYPD Blue”, will be joining the cast of Jericho, comingsoon.net is reporting. He’ll be appearing in six of the seven new episodes in the coming season, which makes me think that he’ll be playing the character that Watch with Kristen a few weeks ago talked about called Col. Hoffman.

Now for a little scoop: We’re told the show welcomes a new character in the premiere: Col. Hoffman, a reliable and experienced military man, just might fill the void left by Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney). Apparently, he’s a good family guy, known for being faithful to his wife (who has been missing since the attacks) and fair to the men in his command. He plays a key role this year.

So, what do y’all think? Is Mr. Morales the Family-Man Col. Hoffman or someone we haven’t heard anything about yet.

Read the article on Esai Morales here, and the Watch With Kristen spoilers here.

Jericho, Esai Morales, Watch With Kristen, second season, Col. Hoffman, TV, television, CBS

TV Squad has a great report of CBS’s TCA Press Tour, in particular Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment President, who opened the floor up to questions, with Jericho coming up very early in the Question and Answer session.

With announcements out of the way, Tassler opened the floor to other topics — first up was why did the network decide to give fan favorite Jericho another shot?

“We love the show creatively,” Tassler says. “We saw a level of audience involvement in the show. (Note: that would be all the nuts fans mailed to CBS.) And we said, ‘maybe this show needs a second chance?’”

Read the whole thing here.

Jericho, Nuts for Jericho, cancellation, fan response, Nina Tassler, TV, television, CBS

Shaun has kindly invited me to chat with him and all of his callers tonight on his radio show, along with a chat on Sunday night, both at 9pm ET 10pm ET. The show starts tonight right in the middle of the Jericho two-hour block with the recap episode, Return to Jericho, followed directly by Black Jack.

While you’re waiting to see the episodes tonight and listen to the show, take a look at the above video, where not only do you get to see the famous Shaun talk about the Nuts Campaign.

**EDIT**
Yes, I am an idiot who can’t remember that Las Vegas is three hours behind, not two… let’s try 10pm ET as the correct time.

Jericho, shaunomacradio, Second Season, interview, TV, television, CBS

Do you know who this man is? Ok, well, other than my Perez Hilton addiction, I probably wouldn’t, though I know that I’m not always like the rest of the world. And, for those of you who don’t know him, that is former American Idol alum Clay Aiken, who is claiming that his Claymates (I didn’t make the word, I’m only just sharing it), on his direction, saved Jericho, and from the impression that I’m left with from reading the articles, they pretty much did it single-handedly.

After his readers figured out what a “Claymate” was (realizing it was them), apparently they not only went into action, but did everything but actually invent the concept of a fan campaign, at least according to Aiken.

“Honestly, within a week, they had organized a campaign amongst ‘Jericho’ fans to send nuts to CBS. It kind of started in that place. And it’s back on the air. It just blows my mind.”

Ok, sorry… I’m all for supporting my favorite show, but I think that the idea that this was all because of “Claymates” really chaps me. The first place that I had heard of sending nuts into CBS was on Shaun’s show the night that I was on with Carole Barbee and Jon Steinberg, not from someone’s site who I’ve never even heard sing outside of my daughter’s Aladdin DVD.

Of course, I do find it a little ironic that someone who was a part of American Idol was out there promoting the saving of Jericho.

What do you think? Do you think that we should be thanking Clay Aiken for Saving Jericho, or do you think it’s a crock?

Read the whole article here at SyFyPortal.

Don’t forget, tonight’s the night! Tune into CBS tonight, July 6, 2007 at 9 p.m. ET for the return of Jericho. They’re showing the pilot episode, which you can read my recap (though I’ve been told by others that they should be called “summaries” because of their length) here.

Jericho, Pilot, renewal, TV, television, CBS

Carol Barbee recently chatted with Broadcasting & Cable’s Marisa Guthrie about the Nuts Campaign and the renewal of Jericho for seven episodes, and talked about the future of the show.

Will Jericho live beyond the seven episodes?

We are not closing this story out. We have a story to tell. It’s a really rich story, and we’ve got it mapped out for quite a while. The network suggested doing a two-hour movie to wrap up this story. We weren’t in any way interested in closing it down.

When CBS came back to us, they said, “We only have time and space on our sound stage for you to do a limited number of episodes.â€? So we’ll do those with the intention that we’ll be back.

She also spoke of how the long hiatus model of Lost and 24, the same one that hurt Jericho, at least in the CBS world-view has been removed from the outlook of most serial dramas, which I’m very happy to hear.

Read the whole interview here.

Hat-tip to TV Squad.

Jericho, Carol Barbee, TV, television, CBS