TVSquad

"and those 40,000 lbs. of nuts just appeared out of nowhere, sent by all those people who weren't watching. -_-;"

- Well if each person sent 1/4 pound of nuts that would be 1.6 Million viewers, not enough to sustain the show.

"Hell, most of the shows I watch on my DVR after they air to avoid commericals or I'll just download shows to watch on my computer.

Networks should start taking into account how many seed and leechers the .torrent of the latest episode has on mininova to judge it's popularity. =P"

- The networks don't care about those people cause they can't make money off of them, by skipping the commercials or downloading a torrent you aren't giving the network any incentive to keep the show going. TV is not a charity. Networks don't exist to put on programing and damn if they make money on it, they exist to make profit.

Exactly! The way it was left at the end of Season 1 was an absolutely awful way to end a series. As much as I am disappointed that it is over, I'm grateful that we'll get an episode that should tie things up. Maybe another network will pick it up. CW, MyNetwork, FX, or USA perhaps?

You'll get a little closure, but not a lot. Things will chill out.

The most interesting part was the the production company/network agreed to produce two (2) season finales. The first that functions as a 'season finale', should the ratings be high enough to merit another season. The second is effectively a 'series finale' which tries to wrap things up as clearly as possible.

CBS will be airing the the 'series finale' version, but I wouldn't be surprised if the other version showed up on DVD or WWW.

Until that changes, great shows will continue be cancelled, if all the networks care about is revenue based on commericals.

I avoid watching commercials 99% of the time, there's just no reason to. I don't mind one commerical, for example if I'm watching a show on the net or on something like On Demand, that's fine. It's when you have the typical block of 5 or so commericals every 15 minutes that I can't stand.

Networks need to find a new way to make profit from the shows themselves and not just from the commercials that air between them. Also Nielsen ratings need to stop, it's an old out-dated system that should be completely scrapped.

What will eventually have to happen for that to work is every tv show will have to become pay per view, that is the best way to count viewer ship and skip commercials. The can use the PPV numbers for ratings to sell product placements and we get to skip commercials and watch the show at any time.

That thinking is flawed. If the networks truly believe that every person sits through every commercial and doesn't use that time to get up, get a snack, use the facilities, etc they are sadly mistaken. Even though I have to fast-forward through them, I do have to sit through all the commercials during the break to get back to the show.

There's also product placement. Anyone who has seen an entire episode of Jericho knows that one of it's biggest corporate sponsor's was Sprint.

For people watching the show online at CBS.com there is always the chance that they will click a sponsor's add- say Sprint and generate revenue that way.

Not to mention the banner ads that run across the bottom of the screen during the episode. While right now the networks use this to promote their shows, more than likely it won't be long before this space is used for corporate advertising.

Google arguably the most successful search engine, yet their advertising is not the industry-standard of annoying banner ads. Why can't television industry take a hint and find new and creative ways to promote their sponsors?

"They" don't tell us what we want to watch, sadly. "We" tell them. I am pretty sure that if CBS could make as much money off of Jericho (or FOX off Firefly or Arrested Development, or Insert Your Favorite Cancelled Show) they would do it. In the end, the bean counters will sell the product they get the most beans for. Or at least don't lose beans by making.

I am speaking, by the way, as a huge fan of the first season of Jericho, and I was very glad to see it come back. However I doubt even that would have happened if they didn't think they would get a nice payoff from the second season DVD sales. All the free press about the fan rebellion didn't hurt either, I am sure.

Still, no one at CBS is twirling their mustache and cackling that they got to cancel the show a second time. I am sure they are sad that it didn't work out. Who wouldn't want a fan uprising for a show you believed in enough to put it on the air in the first place?

I am not saying TV execs are saints, they are not. However they have the sad dilemma of being involved in an art form that can only exist if it sells enough soap. Of course they would rather all be working on shows that are loved and acclaimed. But if those shows don't sell enough soap, they can't afford to make them.

Thankfully there are a lot of other shows out there worth watching. I, for one, plan to watch the final episode with some gratitude that they even tried to bring it back. Then I will put on my eye patch and patiently wait for the final season of Battlestar Galctica to start.

CBS did bring Jericho back and I definately appreciated every episode of this season but saying they gave it another chance is a bit of an overstatement. Tuesday night at 10e/9c? Really? Is there a worse tv timeslot? I agree the problem is dependence on numbers from nielsen's antiquated ratings system. I also agree that internet viewership isn't going to be counted until networks find a way to derive measurable profits from it. The massive support Jericho found on CBS online and iTunes proves that alternate forms of media are on the rise and as a viewer it may be easier for me to get it from iTunes then stay up until 11pm when I work at 5am. The fact that they can't figure out how to profit from alternative forms of deliver is not my problem. But it is because no more Jericho. I never watched a show on CBS before Jericho, and they've taught me a valuable lesson. Since I'm not a neilsen home, I don't count. Thanks CBS, you're not likely to see me again.