Watching Jericho

Sometimes I wonder what goes through the minds of television executives to come up with a “Fall Hiatus”, especially when they do it to new shows such as Jericho. Why would you want to run the risk of losing all the ground you’re gaining with viewers by making them wait months until you get a new episode? Pre-Internet, that is, that would have probably been a nail in the coffin for a show with possibilities.

CBS executives on Tuesday said that television viewers’ increasing comfort level with ancillary online elements was a big part of the decision to rest promising rookie drama Jericho for a couple months at midseason.

“We never would have done that probably if it wasn’t for the Internet,� said CBS Corporation chief research officer and CBS Vision president David Poltrack at the Family Friendly Programming Forum in Beverly Hills.

CBS: Internet Let Us Rest Jericho Midseason

Of course, we’re not getting everything that the producers initially planned for their online presence, due to union issues, says Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post. The now much-talked about D-storyline probably would have added more validity to the networks’ use of the Internet to promote their shows, and instead of losing viewers because of the hiatus on the aired show, it might just have gained viewers.

Now, I’m not saying that what CBS has given us, from Countdown to the Wiki, isn’t a good thing, but I will say that the of seeing a complete storyline played out on demand would be one of those things that could pull a series from the threat (whether it’s a valid threat or not) of non-renewal to making it a hit.

I hope that these union issues can be resolved, because I for one would love to see the D-storyline. I’m sure that we’ll see pieces and parts of it on Innertube over the hiatus, but I’m never satisfied with pieces and parts.