Jericho: The Finale

JerichoCentral was born from a desire to showcase the Save Jericho campaign in May of 2007; it then evolved into an outlet for Jericho news and information.

This chapter of the Jericho saga is finished. Jericho has been cancelled by the people who can't see the future so it is time for me to move on.

All content will be left online for viewing but I will not continue to post. I would like to thank everyone who contributed, commented, dugg, and those who were faithful readers.

JerichoMonster will remain active but, in coming weeks, will have a different look and broader scope. Jericho will continue to be a part of the Monster.

My friend, Beth, and I are happy to have a new blog named Margie and Edna's Basement. Margie and Edna are fictional characters created by Beth and myself. They have lived in Jericho, Kansas all their lives but have decided it's time for them to branch out beyond their beloved town. We hope you will follow their hilarious adventures.

New Blog Alert

Special announcement:

We are Margie and Edna. We have lived in Jericho, Kansas all our lives but we've decided it's time for us to branch out beyond our beloved town.

We'll still keep you informed of all the gossip-I mean the goings on here in town-but we're also going to talk about anything and everything else.

Please visit us at our new blog: Margie and Edna's Basement.

We do love having company.

TV Commercials: Too Loud

"Evidently there's still confusion in the marketplace about what works online, particularly when it comes to video advertising. Two panels at the Ad Age Digital Conference addressed the proliferation of video across different screens and the issues marketers are still grappling with on these new platforms."



"The other day someone was trying to tell me that TV commercials are much louder than the shows we watch, but I couldn't hear them over the ad that was playing on the television at the time.

In fact, it's not just on television any more. I was watching a Supernatural episode from the CW website and was assaulted with ads that were much louder than the show through my own computer - and that's what got me going on today's Screen Rant.


TV Commercials Are Too Loud, But Don't Ask The TV Stations About It

Television commercial volumes (I'm using TV as my common reference) are too loud and without a doubt, we know it, but according to your local television station, they effectively insult us by telling us we are wrong."

CBS: Jerking Us Around

Are you listening, Moonves?
+++++++++++

"Analytics will be the new Intellectual Property. CBS looked at its own traffic and saw a trend of users “catching up” on what happened previously ahead of new episodes of Jericho and Survivor.

Building communities around content drives engagement. But content producers need to take a holistic view of what a show is. Its not just 8-9pm. When you consider joining groups on Facebook, catching up on previous episodes, reading blogs, etc., a show has a much longer, broader appeal than just its timeslot."



"Today I am launching a new company from the pulver.com Incubator, PrimeTimeRewind.TV. Amit Shafrir and I co-founded this company in 2007.

PrimeTimeRewind.TV provides one click access for consumers to watch the latest episode of their favorite Prime Time TV Shows (assuming the underlying TV Network has made the show available for free online viewing.)

The 2007/2008 television season is the first one in which each of the major US based TV and Cable networks embraced the Internet since the start of the TV season by offering complete episodes of most of their prime-time programs for free to people located in the USA. While this is an exciting development for USA based consumers (access to the online TV content is restricted by geography by each of the respective TV Networks), the discovery and viewing experience on each individual site continues to be rather challenging. Until today, there has not been any single platform available for watching all of the otherwise available Prime Time TV programs; each network requires visiting and hunting through a very different site and different user experience."

TVGuide Presents Skeet Ulrich

Exclusive Skeet Ulrich interview from TVGuide. Thanks Don.

Jericho: Really Good

"I have previously stated that Jericho is pretty good. Now I'd like to upgrade the show to really good. Both of the last two episodes had me on the edge of my seat, and last episode I was totally bawling halfway through.

Kung Fu Monkey says:
It's a become better plotted espionage thriller than 24 ever was on its best day.

It's also sharp commentary on the privatization of warfare, the cozy symbiosis of politicians and massive corporations, out of control contractors in Iraq, and the relationship between the US military and populations they're "administering".

Joining Nielsen

"Nielsen, the television ratings monopolist, finally made its way to my mom. She called me, THRILLED that she had been selected to be a Nielsen family! When I think Nielsen, i think set-top boxes that measure your every channel surf, so I asked if they were going to help her with the installation of the box. She said that she was supposed to just write down what she’s watching every minute of the day. WHAT? I assumed she was embroiled in some mail-in phishing operation, but when I got there and looked at her paperwork — it was legit. Nielsen sent her $15 and a little paper diary so that she could record what she watched, exactly when she changed the channel, when she channel-surfed, where she ended up and for how long, etc. I simply could not believe that that is what was behind the billion-dollar advertising decisions that marketers make."

Continuing Jericho

Roush on Jericho

"Question: I am under the impression that Jericho's comeback was only to conclude the series and give closure to the fans. Is this correct? I heard the network had no intention to continue Jericho, which would explain the fast pace of working through the story. I am one of those fans who felt that the premise of the original storyline was good. It needed work, but it had potential. I waited each week for each show, largely because it was a story that created great discussion based on intelligent thoughts. There isn't much to talk about with most commercial television programming other than, "Did you see the cat fight between Barb and Cindy last night?" Jericho is much better than one more crime or reality/sex/conflict show. Sex, swearing, murder, blood and gore used to be reserved for after 9 pm. Jericho has a little darker storyline, but all ages enjoy it, talk about it and don't have to be afraid of its content, at least so far. I watch very little television, and I have access to only three networks. Taking off Jericho means I will rent more movies.— Sherry "

Les Moonves: Kill American Idol

"With CBS close to losing the total viewers race for the first time in five years, CEO Leslie Moonves called Fox's ratings hit "American Idol" a "monster" and urged somebody to "kill that show."

"While we're in repeats, 'American Idol' continues to be a monster," Moonves said Thursday at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York City. "It's a phenomenon. If somebody would kill that show, I'd really appreciate it. But it's a national phenomenon, and it continues to do extremely well. It's tough to compete with it."



"According to Media Life Magazine, the three big network evening news broadcasts have slipped badly in the key 18 to 34 age bracket. At the same time, though, the Cable news nets have picked up among that same demographic. All three network newscasts have lost numbers since last year, with Katie Couric having the worst slide of the three.

According to Media Life, the main reason the evening news shows have been losing so steadily is because the Internet and Cable can give news at any time the viewer is ready to take their news whereas the evening news must be specifically scheduled into the viewer’s lives. Media Life claims that the 18 to 34 age group just “never got into the evening news habit” – a pretty plausible point."

Steamrolling Nielsen

"BWAHAHAHAHA. Nielsen’s clients continue to rebel against the company’s incompetence. Steamrolling ahead with new audience measurement tactics that it’s clearly not ready for, Nielsen yesterday announced to customers it would use its “live” national sample of TV audiences to test its online viewership initiative, which hopes to measure how many people are watching TV shows on their computers. It’s all apart of their ambitious (and DOA) A2/M2, or “anytime/anywhere,” initiative.

Nielsen has only signed up 375 households, within their 14,000 national sample, to participate in both panels; privacy concerns have kept most households from allowing the company to monitor both mediums. And Nielsen’s big bucks clients don’t like where this is headed.

So not only will Nielsen continue to have trouble delivering its TV ratings data on time, but the already suspect numbers will be even more flawed."



"Bonanza originally aired on Saturday nights beginning the year I was born, 1959. While its rival CBS series had managed to garner good ratings on that particular evening, Bonanza never found its audience. NBC slated it for cancellation, but it received one last chance: a move to Sunday nights.

It was just what the show needed. Ratings skyrocketed, and Bonanza won the yearly ratings crown from 1964 through 1967 as the most popular show in the country."

CBS: Take A Look

"The top 10 highest rated shows on the Web this past week were:

1."American Idol" (32.35 percent)
2."Deal or No Deal" (9.91 percent)
3."America's Most Wanted" (4.62 percent)
4."Survivor" (3.58 percent)
5."Lost" (3.21 percent)
6."Dancing with the Stars" (2.13 percent)
7."America's Next Top Model" (2.12 percent)
8."One Tree Hill" (1.78 percent)
9."Jericho" (1.75 percent)
10."The Biggest Loser" (1.45 percent)"




"It's no longer enough to look simply at ratings when judging the worth of a TV show. That's only part of it. A lot of other factors come into play, and now Publicis-owned agency Optimedia has set about to factor those in to determine a show's true popularity with viewers. A new study ranks the reach and power of broadcast programs based on viewership and buzz across digital and traditional media, and it comes up with some surprising results. "Gossip Girl," the CW show that ranks a mere 115th in TV ratings this season, ranks No. 15 on Optimedia's content power ratings, higher than hits with much bigger TV audiences like ABC's "Private Practice" and CBS's "CSI: NY." Networks are starting to pay more attention to this broader potential audience. Tellingly, "Gossip" has been renewed for another season. Other shows that shot up in content power ratings include NBC's "30 Rock" and "Friday Night Lights," which rank in the 80s for TV and in the top 20 for Optimedia. Greg Kahn, senior vice president and director of strategic resources for Optimedia, talks to Media Life about why such new ways of looking at ratings are crucial to media people, what types of shows rate highly, and why networks are taking the trends into account for the upfront."

New Blog Alert From Terocious

New Blog Alert

From Terocious



Time-shifted numbers are in for the week of Feb, 18-24. This is Ep 2 for Jericho.

Jericho is # 15 out of the the top 20 most time-shifted shows. There was a 22.5% increase over the live numbers.


"In last week's episode of Jericho (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET, CBS), "Oversight," a gun-toting Bonnie Richmond (Shoshannah Stern) went out in a blaze of glory, fighting to save her family home. The image of Bonnie's big brother, Stanley — played by Brad Beyer — cradling his sister's lifeless corpse was a heartbreaker. Here, Beyer shares his thoughts on how Bonnie's death will propel Season 2's final episodes, the fabulous Alicia Coppola (who plays Mimi), a Jericho movie and why violence can sometimes be, well, funny."

We Should All Count

Awesome website with Nielsen info.

"Do you think less than 10,000 handpicked households should dictate what more than 250 million people watch on television? Neither do we. Now you can do something about it.

Welcome to WeShouldALLCount.com: America's single resource for the latest news and filings related to the erinMedia federal antitrust suit against Nielsen Media Research (NMR)."
+++++++++++++


"The CBS Audience Network is the web’s first professional online video network distributing CBS entertainment, news and sports content to as much of the Web as possible. Partnerships with leading edge community building and social application providers enables users to discover and personalize CBS content and allows users to easily incorporate CBS clips into their profiles, websites, blogs, widgets, wikis and community pages.

Benefits to Advertising in the CBS Audience Network:

The #1 Television network is NOW ONLINE
The most widely distributed professional video content network on the web*
The most engaged video audience on the web – 2x higher than the closest network competitor^
Content Diversity: featuring web friendly short-form and full length episodes
Community Diversity: reaching ALL of the web’s demographic and psychographic profiles
CBS Online video consumption growing 200% year over year
Research: custom quantitative and qualitative data on advertising performance and viewer engagement
Advertising Creative Diversity: custom advertising units, overlays, in-stream advertising

Jericho: A Boondoggie Recollection

This is an article written last May by Boondoggie at Find-the-boots. I thought it deserves another read.


"But the most interesting part of this story isn't that some fans got left high and dry, it's that the business model failed everyone. The Nielson Ratings system, which hasn't changed much since their introduction in the 1940s and violates every possible rule on randomness of sample (can you say "self selected"?), has only recently started tracking time shifted viewing. And the networks don't take that into account in their advertising rates. So take a show that will appeal to well-off, intelligent people with disposable income and put it up against a pop pablum spree like American Idol, and you'll conclude that no one is watching. I'll posit that Jericho viewers are much more likely to have a DVR and less likely to be Nielson families. And they're far more likely to have a broadband internet connection to view the shows off services such as Itunes. The concept of watching two shows at once, which is now quite commonplace, just isn't built into the ratings system.

Which leads me to a conclusion: Old media really is dead. The idea of selling advertising in exchange for eyeballs just isn't going to make it. The "science" for measuring performance hasn't kept up. Anything you do to try to measure viewership will be self selected, by definition. It takes a certain kind of person to put up with a monitoring box in their house or to keep a diary. And those aren't the same people that are spending money on high tech gadgets like DVRs and Slingboxes. Or burning episodes to DVD from their Tivo so they can watch them on a plane.

Eventually "free" TV is going to be useless. The quality of shows will continue their downward trend as the intelligent and well-off move into other forms of entertainment. The old media will just keep producing more reality shows or mean comedies because they're the least expensive to produce. When your market is dwindling, the urge to cut costs is overwhelming. Look at the difference between the programming on paid channels (SciFi, HBO, Showtime) vs the old media. This trend has been going on a long time."

Tell CBS What You Watch

Become a member of the First Watch! today by taking the survey and answering a few questions about Watch! and yourself. As a thank you for your time, you will be entered to win one of 10 boxed sets of CBS DVDs!

One of the questions asks what you watch on CBS, and although Jericho is not on the list there is a write in space. The survey asks lots of demographic and marketing questions, so this tells CBS a lot about each viewer.

You may also write in the names of your favorite actor/actress on CBS.




"Here's where you come in. CBS needs to know that the serialized and complex nature of Jericho is not a turn-off for the average TV viewer. Beyond that, CBS needs to know that the political nature of the show, and the implications of the show are interesting to a large majority of people, I'd imagine, at the least, to the readers of this here blog.

If you're looking for something to capture your imagination, without having to know physics and math, you might want to give Jericho a try. If you like the pacing of Heroes, but found it just a little too slap-stick and light-hearted, Jericho has what you're looking for.

So, gather here each week as I walk us into the walls of Jericho. Know that every episode you watch on CBS.com will contribute to the cause, and send CBS a clear message, like the Israelites sent Jericho a clear message marching around the walls of the once-great city."

Online: CBS Ad Rates

"CBS said ad spots for TV shows it airs on its online "Audience Network" are selling for more than $20 per thousand viewers -- a higher rate than the network charges when it broadcasts the same shows on your TV in prime time. There's two ways to view a stat like that. The first: It shows that the CBS's online audience is much smaller than its broadcast one. CPMs are a function of both price and reach. But the more positive view is that the price also reflects the fact that online viewers tend to be more engaged with the advertising and a lot younger than network TV (median age 38, compared to 53 for TV)."


The fourth Jericho blog carnival.

Thanks to Amy at RemoteAccess


"Is anyone else out there a "Jericho" fan? When I first saw this "new" flag of the "Allied States of America", I thought, "WTF?" And, for the last few episodes, every time they show it, every time they take down the flag of the United States and put up the new flag, I can't help but have a feeling of queasy unease. I guess that's the first question I would ask if we would have to reconstitute ourselves, would we choose a new flag? The Iraqis have tried to do it twice without much success."

Online: CBS Ad Rates

"CBS said ad spots for TV shows it airs on its online "Audience Network" are selling for more than $20 per thousand viewers -- a higher rate than the network charges when it broadcasts the same shows on your TV in prime time. There's two ways to view a stat like that. The first: It shows that the CBS's online audience is much smaller than its broadcast one. CPMs are a function of both price and reach. But the more positive view is that the price also reflects the fact that online viewers tend to be more engaged with the advertising and a lot younger than network TV (median age 38, compared to 53 for TV)." The fourth Jericho blog carnival Thanks to Amy at RemoteAccess "Is anyone else out there a "Jericho" fan? When I first saw this "new" flag of the "Allied States of America", I thought, "WTF?" And, for the last few episodes, every time they show it, every time they take down the flag of the United States and put up the new flag, I can't help but have a feeling of queasy unease. I guess that's the first question I would ask if we would have to reconstitute ourselves, would we choose a new flag? The Iraqis have tried to do it twice without much success."

Online: CBS Ad Rates

"CBS said ad spots for TV shows it airs on its online "Audience Network" are selling for more than $20 per thousand viewers -- a higher rate than the network charges when it broadcasts the same shows on your TV in prime time.

There's two ways to view a stat like that. The first: It shows that the CBS's online audience is much smaller than its broadcast one. CPMs are a function of both price and reach. But the more positive view is that the price also reflects the fact that online viewers tend to be more engaged with the advertising and a lot younger than network TV (median age 38, compared to 53 for TV)."



The fourth Jericho blog carnival

Thanks to Amy at RemoteAccess


"Is anyone else out there a "Jericho" fan?

When I first saw this "new" flag of the "Allied States of America", I thought, "WTF?" And, for the last few episodes, every time they show it, every time they take down the flag of the United States and put up the new flag, I can't help but have a feeling of queasy unease.

I guess that's the first question I would ask if we would have to reconstitute ourselves, would we choose a new flag? The Iraqis have tried to do it twice without much success."

Quincy Smith: Diving In

"The bigger question: What does CBS plan to do with a small company - now around 16 people -- that makes web video? Digital boss Quincy Smith says that deal was meaningful for CBS -- "2006 was the year of experimentation. We're not just touching our toes in the water anymore." -- but is also clear about the big picture: CBS isn't going to shift its core focus from making and distributing broadcast TV shows. We're not quite sure where that leaves the Wallstrip guys -- there's a lot of talk about "infusing their DNA" into CBS, which confuses us a bit -- but we're happy to watch their stuff, regardless."




"The other Tuesday night SF show had much lower numbers by comparison but still showed fair ratings for the LIVE watching crowd. “Jericho” garnered a 1.8/5 share for its efforts, or close to 6 million fans tuning in. While that is nothing to hoop and holler about, this is one particular show that has shown it does much better with the TiVo/DVR crowd and it will be interesting to see what those numbers reveal. After the gripping, and quite shocking conclusion to this Tuesday’s episode, “Jericho” has proven it deserves a third season. We can only hope that CBS is sharp enough to realize that."

Missing Bonnie Richmond

It was a sad episode of Jericho this week when Bonnie died. I will really miss her and Shoshannah as well. Thank you, Shoshannah, for all the hard work you did for Jericho. You are a fine actress and I'll be watching you spread your wings and soar again soon.

Kudos to Emily Rose for her fine performances. I love that she's joined the cast and hope she returns for Season 3. She is impressive.

Finally, I've always liked Skeet and still do but this man's talent has burst forth this season. He seems to be putting his all into every scene and it shows. We appreciate Skeet.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Congratulations to Nina Tassler. Thank you for your efforts.


"CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler will be honored with the National Champion for Children Award by the Alliance for Children’s Rights at a March 10 gala in Beverly Hills.

According to the organization, Tassler is being honored “for her dedication and commitment to the organization’s mission. She is a strong advocate for children living in poverty in the Los Angeles area and has played an active role for the Alliance for Children’s Rights, most recently attending and supporting a Thanksgiving dinner for youth who have aged out of foster care without a family or permanent support system.”

Jericho: CBS Numbers

Breaking News: CBS Press Release


"On-Air + Online + On-DVR = Many More Eyeballs and Double Digit Percentage Demo Increases

"Jericho" and "Big Brother" Viewer Engagement Across Multi-Platforms Is Far Greater Than Initial Same Day Ratings Indicate

On-air, online and on-DVR viewing are resulting in many more eyeballs for CBS series JERICHO and BIG BROTHER, according to Nielsen Live Plus 7-Day ratings and new data from CBS Interactive Research."



"CBS, for the first time in six years, will cede its spot as most-watched network. To Fox.

CBS, which uses a strategy of getting total viewers rather than the coveted 18-49 demo, has won the rights to call itself America’s top network many years running.

As a result of the lengthy WGA strike, CBS has suffered because its anchor scripted shows have gone missing. CSI, for example, last ran an original episode on January 10 and will not return with new eps until April 3."

Jericho Time-Shifted Numbers In

Time-Shifted Numbers are in.

Go here.



Excellent article.


"Newspaper circulation figures miss the millions of people who prefer to read news and features online. And conventional overnight and weekly Nielsen TV ratings don't capture viewers who now watch shows at their convenience online or on DVRs, VOD and portable devices.

In television, technology seems to give Nielsen Media Research a better handle on audience habits. Its People Meter boxes, installed in homes of survey participants, automatically record when a TV set is on, the channel being watched, and - when people take the trouble to push the right buttons - who's in the room.

The biggest change this year is Nielsen's decision to include viewers who don't watch a show live as it is broadcast via the airwaves or cable. Weekly ratings now also include people who watch a program any time on the same day it airs - the cutoff is 3:00 AM. And beginning with the TV season that started in September, networks cut ad deals based on the number of people who watch a program up to three days after the air date.

While this certainly provides for a more complete picture, the new statistics still don't tell us how many people watch a show or network in all of its venues."

Nielsen: Protecting Numbers

"Hear This: If I report television ratings information here, it’s based on unofficial sources here in the market. Those darn Nielsen folks are pretty protective of their numbers, because they don’t want us media types publicizing numbers that they’re charging the stations good money to get. From what I hear they come down hard on their TV station customers for providing those numbers to media types.

So it comes as no surprise to me that information I received and published last week may have been off by a few points. Sweeps ratings seem to be less important than they used to be, but they’re still the way stations keep score, and the numbers relate directly to what is charged for advertising."



Here are some updates from fans of The Dresden Files.

Moonves: New Media

"On a conference call with analysts last Tuesday, Moonves said that CBS will likely grow through acquisition, most likely in the new media and outdoor advertising space.

CBS has usually used its cash reserves to pay dividends to shareholders. While that remains the priority — and Moonves said the dividend could possibly rise again this year — he said there is plenty of powder in the broadcaster's arsenal to fund a deal or two."



"Last season was about the aftermath of a nuclear attack in our small little town," says Barbee. "Season 2 is about the country and saving a system of government and a way of life. It's about occupation, resistance and then revolution."

- Carol Barbee - Baltimore Sun

Saving Jericho: The Right Thing

"So, having spent the last few days laid up in bed, smacked out on NyQuil and Sudafed, watching reruns of "Dr. Who," "Jericho" and "Battlestar Galactica" on SciFi leaves me really qualified to make only these policy pronouncements this week:

Second, saving "Jericho" from cancellation hell is the best decision CBS has made in a very long time.

Seriously, "Ghost Whisperer"? "Cold Case?" CBS doesn't have anything that even comes close to "Jericho's" level. Personally, I've always had a soft spot for post-apocalyptic fiction (like "The Road Warrior") and stories about small groups under extraordinary stress ("Das Boot") and "Jericho" combines both into a compelling, character-driven plot that is dynamic and (as TV fiction so rarely is) unpredictable."

Cable Ratings

"For all the agitation it caused the television industry, the writers strike had an undeniably salubrious effect on cable ratings, as seven of the top 10 ad-supported networks in February saw their primetime deliveries swell by double-digit percentages compared with a year ago.

According to Nielsen Media Research data from January 28-February 24, the 10 leading ad-supported cable networks averaged a 24.9% increase in total viewers in primetime compared with February 2007, a number inflated by CNN's primary-fueled surge of 133%. With CNN pulled out of the mix, the remaining nine still averaged a sizable 15.1% year-over-year increase."




"The Nielsen Co. has formed a national Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council (HLAC), an independent advisory group comprised of community and business leaders, to help the company recruit, measure and accurately report on Hispanic television households in the U.S.

The first meeting of the HLAC is scheduled for March 4 in New York.

“By providing invaluable third-party insight and expertise on the Hispanic community, the Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council will have an important role in helping us successfully achieve these goals,” said Catherine Herkovic, senior VP and managing director of the National Television Client Services at Nielsen.

Jericho: Moonves and Nielsen

"As the media industry ponders its efficiencies in a shaky economy, one bigwig who's not panicking is Les Moonves. The president-CEO of CBS Corp. said in his fourth-quarter 2007 earnings call to investors this morning that the TV side of CBS has not seen a recession thus far.

Earlier in the call, Mr. Moonves also addressed the gray area that continues to surround the effectiveness of Nielsen's commercial ratings in the post-strike TV market. "With the new C3 measurement system, it is virtually impossible to draw apples-to-apples comparisons," he said. "And with the strike adding more repeats there is little conclusion that can be drawn from the numbers this season. What is important is that the advertisers are generally pleased that we have a more precise measuring system."

Nielsen: Charging More

I have to agree with the author here. Nielsen needs to quit jumping into everything (like they did HeyNielsen)and get their core program fixed first.


"Analytics and publishing powerhouse Nielsen continues to find new ways to charge clients more money for services that do little but make for a good press release. (Note to self: AWESOME BUSINESS MODEL!!)

In this doozy of a round, beginning next month, perpetually flailing Nielsen will “shadow” a group of 450 consumers, in separate phases throughout the year, and record any media they consume through each 24-hour day, whether magazines, books, DVDs, or YouTube videos.

If it sounds ambitious, it is, which is why they’re teaming with Ball State University and Sequent Partners (”on behalf of the Committee for Research Excellence”). Recruiting participants will be part of Nielsen’s job, and they’ll pull from the same pool they use to deliver flawed television ratings.

So why does this sound like it’s going to go horribly wrong?

For one, it’s Nielsen, so you should already expect that."




"CBS has begun streaming full-length episodes of Star Trek for free as part of the network's initiative to move archived programming online.

The entire first three seasons from the original series of Star Trek are available to be streamed, along with the first full seasons of MacGyver and Hawaii Five-O and the first two seasons of The Twilight Zone. Additional series are expected to be added over the next few months."

Jericho To Sci-Fi ?

Will CBS make a decision about Jericho after Ep 3 airs this week? Carol Barbee thinks so.

"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 knowing anything from CBS but she wouldn't be able to tell if she did know. It is good to hear she's looking into other options.

"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 CBS to bring the show back after the network canceled it after the first season.)"

Jericho: Who Will Die ?

"Jericho fans would be nuts to miss out when executive producers Carol Barbee and Jon Turteltaub (along with cast members Lennie James and Brad Beyer) sit for a panel discussion hosted by TV Guide's Craig Tomashoff this Sunday at the San Francisco WonderCon. "I will discuss alternate endings for the [current] season and look beyond to what could happen in Season 3," Barbee tells us. "I will also tease the death of a major character that will occur in Episode 4."



** New Ranger Alert**

"Jericho is one of the best shows I've seen on television in a long time. I downloaded Season 1 from iTunes the other night and had a marathon of sorts, watching every available episode from the pilot on through those I found from Season 2. The writing, acting and even the special effects (a-bomb explosions, etc.) are extremely well-done especially for TV."



Save FNL:
"Friday Night Lights takes place in fictional Dillon, Texas and tells stories of family, friendship, love, loss, success, failure, self-discovery and religion that seem nothing like fiction. Some shows attempt to be about too much, and the characters and storylines suffer as a result. Friday Night Lights, on the contrary, introduces you to the characters and lets you see the daily interaction, the simple conversations, family dinners and football games so that you truly feel as though you are following the lives of real people. They seem human. As every episode draws to a close, you wonder how each character will spend the next week and what life will bring them next."

Jericho:Eyeballs Online

Well, it would appear that Quincy knows there are a lot of online viewers. Let's hope he tells ClueLes Moonves that we're here.

"Generally speaking there are younger demographics online, and we have to hit them with everything we've got," said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, in an interview. "We are absolutely using this to go out and find new eyeballs who might not otherwise have seen this.

Under Smith, CBS has been determined to make its programming available on as many Web sites as possible, rather than trying to confine viewers to CBS.com or other CBS-owned sites.

People who watch 'Jericho' might also like 'Star Trek,'" according to Smith. "We pay attention to DVD sales, to broadcast requests through Nielsen and also to online information. We know from discussions on YouTube that people who like this also like that. ... On Facebook, people who join the 'How I Met Your Mother' group also like stuff on 'Big Bang Theory.'"

CBS: Cross Eyed

"Someone’s drinking the kool-aid if they think that because the problem is precisely not a problem of fans “coming back.” The fans are already there, roughly 5 million of them. The problem is that CBS has failed to attract new viewers.

So, here’s the idea that brought it in to focus for me. In order for this show to be saved, we know that they need more than the 7 million or so that watched the premiere (because folks told us that 7million was mediocre, remember?). So, let’s arbitrarily set a number, say 9 million viewers, that would get CBS’s attention enough to give the show another chance at a third season.

This means that CBS would expect approximately 3-4 million additional viewers to tune in to Jericho at 10pm EST than tuned in for Big Brother, their primetime lead-in show, in the previous hour. On a Tuesday night.

I’m sorry, that’s just crazy."



"As a part of CBS's belief and commitment to Jericho, its doing a tie in with Big Brother this coming week with the Jericho episode airing on Tuesday (2/26) - BB house guests will have a task to do related to Jericho.

A lot of the points about new media and alternate viewing platforms we have been making are coming to light - Jericho's position on the iTunes chart is great (for both episodes 2.1 and 2.2). The numbers CBS is seeing from views on innerTube are great."


Jericho Blog Carnival by

Amy at RemoteAccess

Nielsen Ratings: Relevance Lost

"The networks may be crying foul over ratings delays, and Nielsen's business is under assault from all sides, but that's not stopping CEO and former GE man David Calhoun from making some money for KKR, Blackstone and Carlyle Group. Nielsen's financials have been a relative secret since it was taken private in an $12 billion deal in 2006, but Fortune squeezes out some data."



"How does the generally competent Sara Erichson, VP of sales and client services, plan to handle the general incompetence of Nielsen, the audience measure company plagued by, among other things, delays in reporting its TV data?
Like any good media conglomerate exec, she’s overseeing the snatching up other companies."



"Nielsen isn’t just playing defense against attacks from, say, benign outlets like ourselves. Rather the clients who fund its operations – and its rumored IPO hopes – are lashing out at the problem-plagued ratings service.

“Nielsen is in a fight for its relevant life,” says Tracy Scheppach, SVP of ad giant Starcom Worldwide."

Jericho Rises At TiVo

Jericho rises again in TiVo ratings.

Up to # 12.



" My husband Dave and I received a thick, official-looking envelope from the Nielsen Ratings Company last weekend. The Nielsen ratings system measures television viewership in the United States. The information they gather establishes commercial advertising prices and determines which shows stay or go in the program lineup."


Condor Recap

Thanks to Amy at RemoteAccess.

Jericho: Condor

Amy at RemoteAccess discusses preparing for tonight's episode: Condor.

More here.



Great article from the New York Times:

"The postapocalyptic fantasy “Jericho” has returned for a second season more pungent and more pointed than its first. (As a matter of procedure we properly ought to start by thanking the fanatics who borrowed from the show’s spirit of communitarianism, sending CBS executives 20 tons of peanuts to rescue the series from cancellation.)"



"New television sets being manufactured this year are being equipped with outlets that will allow users to connect the sets directly to the Internet, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Monday). The connectors will eventually allow them to receive television shows on demand, as well as weather forecasts, stock quotes, and YouTube videos, the newspaper noted. George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal's chief digital officer, told the Times that while most consumers have shied away from additional set-top boxes for such programming, a connection built into the TV set is likely to have a chance. "It brings the ability to have unlimited channel capacity, personalized channels -- a celestial video jukebox in the sky," he said. David Eun, Google's vice president of content partnerships, added, "This is about making content accessible to as many viewers as possible."

CBS: Know Your Audience

"There was even “Saturday Jericho Game Night,” as well as a “Two Old Ladies of Jericho” chat. Back in August, Remote Access asked two Jericho fans to guest-blog on their website; they accepted but approached the task from the fictitious eyes of “Edna and Margie,” portrayed as two of Jericho’s oldest residents. The humorous, gossip-filled blog became both a must-read for Jericho fans and made “Edna and Margie” instant Jericho celebrities."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CBS is the real story for many of us. It was shown by Katie Couric's ratings that CBS does have an older audience but they keep trying to grab the 18-49 group.

Once again we see that CBS does not know their audience and they won't until they stop relying on Nielsen. Maybe not even then. Also, I've been told that many CBS affiliates did not air Jericho on Sat. night


"The real story here for me is CBS. And I’m sure I’ll take some hate mail for it, but the problem this network faces is in attracting 18-49 viewers. Indeed, CBS came in last or next to last (beating only the CW) in the 18-49 demo every single half hour of Sunday night. The problem is that on this Sunday, at least two of the four shows it aired, Big Brother and Dexter are aimed at younger people. How bad is the problem? It’s really bad. In the 7:30p half hour, 60 Minutes had 13.12 million people tuned in and American Gladiators had only 6.94 million and still beat CBS handily in the 18-49 demo.

What happened to Big Brother? It finished next to last, in both viewers AND the 18-49 demo, beating only the CW. What happened to Dexter? It finished last (by 10pm, FOX and CW were off the primetime grid or it would have at least thrashed the CW) in viewers and the 18-49 demo.

Dexter did a bit better than Jericho and it also did better than Big Brother, but all three of these shows have the same problem, they seem to be targeted at an audience who don’t actually watch CBS much. "

Jericho: Count All Viewers

If you have TiVo you can record Jericho (on CBS and SciFi) and play it back the next day with commercials.
It's a lot easier to find TiVo owners than it is Nielsen families.

For more info on how TiVo works go here.


Jericho Season One is Currently Airing on the SciFi channels on Mondays at 10/9 Central.



Sign this petition to be counted:


To: Major TV Networks

The Nielsen ratings are flawed and outdated. This is a petition for the major networks to change the way they count viewers.
Please sign this petition and let the networks and their advertisers know we want all viewing methods to count.When enough people have signed an email will be sent to the major networks.

Blackjack Fairgrounds: Blog Carnival

"Despite the fact that Edna & Margie were nowhere to be seen in Tuesday’s season premiere, “Reconstruction,” Remote Access has stumbled upon a transcript of a conversation between the two ladies right about at that time…"



Blackjack Fairgrounds: The first Jericho blog carnival



"Thanks to the Jericho Telegraph:
Posted by Michael Learmonth.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider.

TiVo's attempt to transform itself into a media services company took another small step forward Thursday. CBS signed on as a client of TiVo's Stop Watch service, which provides second-by-second viewing data from a panel of 20,000 TiVo users.

Editor: The TiVo sampling is anonymous, so any TiVo customer might be included in the sampling."



"The last pre-strike episode of Supernatural will be airing next week, and they'll be back with four more season 3 installments beginning on Thursday, April 24. This means that fans will be waiting about two months in between new episodes, and while that is a pretty long time, it could certainly be worse."

Clarifying Nielsen Ratings

There continues to be misinformation going around about viewers being counted for Jericho. I hope to clear up some misconceptions:


"I just got off the phone with a Nielsen representative. According to the very nice lady, DVR usage is only measured for Nielsen families...not for the general public. While I'm sure this is disappointing to a lot of people on the board, let's just remember that Jericho is already one of the most DVR'ed shows out there.

I just got off the phone with Dish Network, my satellite provider. My box is hooked up through a phone line. According to them, the only viewing information they collect is Pay Per view movies."



"Not one to take information at face value, I called on a Nielsen family friend to call the Nielsen Corp office and find out the accuracy. She was told that Nielsen will definitely not be compiling data from non-Nielsen DVR usage. Nielsen has based their reputation on providing networks with quantified data, backed up with demographics.

Since some brought up the option that satellite and cable providers could be compiling this data individually to provide to the networks, I made a call to a good friend who is assistant to the President of one such national company. She said that their company does not have the resources to provide this data to the networks at this time. She said some raw data could probably be compiled and presented (after an increase in staffing) but she had not heard of any requests from the networks for such data on a continual basis."

End Of The Road

As most of you know there was a time during the Save Jericho campaign when it became necessary for me to have three blogs so I could post assorted news and information about the campaign.

As we are ready to embark on our journey to Season 2 I feel some changes are in order. We won the campaign and Jericho will return soon. I feel that I am spread too thin to provide the depth of coverage I am now interested in pursuing.

Therefore, I am happy to announce that JerichoMonster will remain as the blog for Jericho news and information. Another of my blogs, Arabelle's Alley will, within the next week, become a blog focusing on TV in general as well as Social Networking. JerichoCentral will remain (for informational purposes) but I will not be updating it after this post.

I hope you will all join me at JerichoMonster for more in depth discussions of the show. I appreciate your support and encouragement and look forward to seeing you at Arabelle's and the Monster.

Thank you.

CBS Gets It Right

CBS finally got it right. Be sure to check out Jericho's new page.

There is a ton of information plus videos. There's even a spot for the Fan Made Video of the Day.

The old Meebo chat is gone which is the best news of all.



"The February ratings sweeps period starts tonight, but it won't look like any other.

Thanks to the three-months-long writers' strike, the major networks finally have run out of fresh episodes of most top series. That leaves a handful of annual big events, several midseason replacements and plenty of reality shows."

Jericho On CTV

"Resurrected after cancellation - thanks to fan support that included sending CBS tons of peanuts - Jericho will return to CTV on Feb. 12 at 10 pm ET. The post-apocalyptic show about desperate lives in a Kansas town after much of the world is destroyed by nuclear war will also debut on Space on Feb. 16 at 8 pm ET.

Joining series star Skeet Ulrich (pictured) for season two are Esai Morales (NYPD Blue) and Toronto native Kenneth Mitchell (Leap Years). Having a new episode of American Idol as the lead-in for episode one shouldn't hurt ratings for the series' much-anticipated return.

As CTV president of creative, content & channels Susanne Boyce sees it: "Jericho delivers non-stop action, gritty drama and nail-biting suspense, which explains why it has one of the most loyal fan bases in all of television."

CTV's promo plans for Jericho include a multi-spot campaign that will kick off during the Super Bowl broadcast this Sunday."



"While it's been more than six months since fans sent in tons of nuts to tell CBS to bring "Jericho" back on the air, it appears the show's executive producer Jon Turtletaub has finally returned to Earth and has something good to share with the show's fans.

He recently posted to the "Jericho" production blog about how he heard of the show's demise than its imminent resurrection."

Nightbird Chat

"If you want to write a story, or even tell one, first you have to be in the character's head. And even if you aren't interested in that, its fun to crawl into, say, Mimi's mind and see the world shes in from her point of view. Not you idea of her point of view but how as best you can do how she would see it.

We have a new season with a very different world....come and try your hand at how your favorite character, or a character sees the world in season 1 and how they will react to all the changes.

You don't have to be a writer or aspire to be one, come and role play someone else.

Jericho Library, Wednesday, 9pm eastern"

Jericho: Remote Access

"OK, I think I’m committed to posting daily on Jericho before Season 2 gets its start in a scant 2 1/2 weeks.

So, you all have to do your part – if you see something out there and haven’t read it on Remote Access, let me know immediately, if not sooner.

Plus, I’ll be looking for guest bloggers for the new season of Jericho, a la the Great Jericho Blogging Experiment of the summer of reruns, which was a resounding success. Margie and Edna already have graciously agreed to recap the first episode for us. That leaves six episodes left to staff. Priority will go to those folks who’ve already guest blogged, but there’s always room for multiple blogs per episode. Let me know if you’re interested and we can talk/e-mail about it."

TV Strike Thought

"How quickly can network TV get back on track after the writers strike? Estimates from analysts and industry insiders suggest it will take anywhere from four to eight weeks to get scripted dramas and comedies back on the air, meaning that if the strike were resolved by mid-February, the broadcast networks still wouldn't be back to full strength until mid-March or mid-April at the earliest.

That would give them time to have stunning May sweeps, no doubt, but probably would mean that a full season of TV's best (about 22 episodes of each series) is not in the cards."

Jericho: Brad Beyer

"It tries to convey to stand up for what you believe in," Beyer says. "What's interesting about the show, the reason people like it, in the climate of the world, something like this could happen. You look at 9/11, the Middle East, the way people feel about the United States around the world. It's not a good situation. People want to see how real people respond to these kinds of situations."

The people of Jericho, Kan., have stood up against a neighboring town, New Bern. And some citizens are questioning a fascist new government based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and the thuggish methods of mercenaries.

In this bleak setting, the romance of Stanley and Mimi (Alicia Coppola) offers a respite.

"I don't think the writers had any idea it was going to end up that way," Beyer said. "She came to take my farm away. There was just something in the rapport. It really worked."

Beyer added that he and Coppola has a similar sense of humor."

Jericho Rocks

"Why am I telling you this? Beause Jericho rocks. The cast, the sets, the drama, the action – everything about it is 100% fantastic. And if my math is right, you’ve got 18 days to catch up and see what you’ve been missing. Season One is now available on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment and it’s a great package. Rent it, buy it, borrow it from a friend – do whatever you have to do, but watch it. If you get started now, you should finish in time. (Actually, you might finish in a weekend.) Most importantly, tune in on February 12 and make CBS realize they did the right thing by giving Jericho a second chance at life. It deserves nothing less.

Are you a “Jericho” fan? Talk about it in the E-Gear forums."




"Just one week from today, the seeds of a revolution will be launched.

Buoyed by the success of the NUTS to CBS Jericho campaign in which fans sent 40,000 pounds of nuts to CBS headquarters in New York and Los Angeles and got an abbreviated seven-episode second season of their beloved show, fans of The 4400 settled upon another edible with a long shelf life: sunflower seeds.

The group has a web site, MySpace page, LiveJournal blog, online petition and more."

Jericho: On Sci-Fi

"CBS will know sooner rather than later whether or not they will allow "Jericho" to keep on living past its second season, but fans may get a little help from a new rebroadcasting deal the post-apocalyptic series has made with the SciFi Channel."



“Jericho is a gripping science fiction series that SCI FI Channel is excited to add to our schedule,” said Thomas Vitale, Senior Vice President of Programming and Original Movies. “Thanks to the passion and persistence of its loyal viewers who saved this program from being canceled, new viewers can now experience this show for the first time on the SCI FI Channel while CBS continues the story in its second season run starting this February."



Threads of interest at CBS message board:

Heather or Emily?

Breaking News: CBS

"To celebrate the return of Jericho, we’ll soon give you the opportunity to enter for your chance to win a trip for two to WonderCon 2008 in San Francisco to meet the cast of Jericho!"

Stay tuned! Thanks CBS!!

Nuts And Seeds

"Jericho fans saved that show by mailing tons of nuts to CBS, and now fans of The 4400 want you to try something similar to save that show.

They've set up SaveThe4400.com, where you can sign a petition to save the show and also buy a 1.75 oz bag of sunflower seeds from GiantSeeds.com. Then you send them (of course) to Bonnie Hammer at USA Network headquarters in New York City. I'm sure she'll be happy to get them (cough)."

Be sure to read the full article.



"The daytime soap operas might be losing their bubbles in the weeks ahead as networks resort to episodes not penned by striking writers.

The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5, has picketed for several days in front of ABC headquarters in New York, primarily to protest its airing of "All My Children" episodes written by non-union members. ABC is the only network to produce all of its soap operas, while "Days of Our Lives" on NBC is produced by Corday Prods. and all of the CBS soaps are produced outside the network, including two by Procter & Gamble and one by Sony."

The Dogs Of Jericho

CBS: Promoting Jericho

"Some of the best news since the announcement that there was to be a second season of Jericho, is the fact that CBS is really promoting the second season of Jericho. We all know that this has a lot to do with the fact there is very little content on TV due to the strike, and that CBS is trying to really play the fan card. However I am very happy to report that while watching the AFC Divisional Games and AFC Championship Game on CBS there was plenty of promotion for the upcoming second season of Jericho. Hopefully the promotion brings in great numbers for the start of Season 2 of Jericho"




"We spend a lot of time watching TV shows. A few our TiVo catches and the rest I stream from the laptop to the Xbox 360. We just don’t have the time to spend watching tv when the networks want us to so we hardly ever watch live tv. I recently got Season 1 of Jericho. I had heard of Jericho but had never watched it and didn’t know much about it. After reading that a few people I follow were excited for season 2 and reading more about the show it grabbed my attention. So, we had to get season one. We are about half way through the season and I gotta say its an awesome show. I’m lovin’ the characters, the plot, the mystery and the sub-plots. We hope to finish season one in time for season two. Another show that I have never watched but just got the first season of is ‘Dexter’. We plan to start watching it after we finish Jericho."

Happy Birthday Skeet

"With favorite scripted shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “The Office” and “CSI” now out of fresh episodes, the strike-torn network television season is starting to look like the National Football League around 1987, when “replacement players” took over the league for three weeks during a walkout by the real players.

CBS has nothing like an abundance of new episodes, but of all the networks it has the strongest corps of repeatable shows, like “CSI,” “NCIS” and “Two and a Half Men.” The network has one established comedy, “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” and one new one, “Welcome to the Captain,” ready to come off the bench. And it has the return of the nuclear-nightmare series “Jericho,” which will have a complete arc of seven episodes.

CBS also will offer the complete season of the serial-killer series “Dexter,” which ran earlier this season on its sister cable network, Showtime."

Jericho: DVD Review

"Moving to a much newer show, the second season -- which begins Feb. 12 -- of the CBS post-apocalypse drama Jericho promises to be better than the first, at least from what I can tell by watching a preview DVD provided by the network. Now that they've established the basic premise (a small Kansas town tries to survive after nuclear attacks destroy several major cities and shut down the country), they can move on to more interesting things: the conspiracy behind the attacks.

I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that even with a quasi-national government in charge and society functioning again, things haven't gotten much safer for the residents of Jericho. By the end of the third episode, we've gotten hints that there are forces at work here just as threatening -- in the long run -- as the nuclear bombs.

Here's what I wrote about the first season after watching it on DVD last month:

It's just that the show is way too earnest and serious, and also too focused on dull domestic drama. The best parts -- and the reason to keep watching -- are the moments that give us small, frightening glimpses of what's happening in the rest of the country. Unfortunately, you often have to slog through sleepy story lines involving unfaithful husbands and a mayoral election to get to the more interesting question: who was behind the attack? At this point, it's the only thing keeping me watching.

Now, that more interesting question is getting a lot more play, which will keep me watching yet again."

Jericho: Cultural Learnings

"While I still believe everything I wrote there, the situation gets trickier in the case of Jericho. With Jericho, the premiere ratings do matter, as returning to middling returns will all but sink the show’s chances of gaining a season three if the initial cancellation hasn’t already done so. And Jericho already has a fan base of internet fans, they worked tirelessly to save the show back in June. So the problems facing a new show aren’t quite the same as the problems facing Jericho’s second season, and thus there is some concern that this could sink the show’s chances.

And I’m here to tell you that the answer to that concern?

“Eh, not really.”

And here’s why."

Breaking News!!

Thanks to The Jericho Telegraph:

Brad Beyer and Ashley Scott are going to attend this fan event on behalf of Jericho:

FX International convention on Jan. 25, 26 and 27 in Orlando

http://www.fxshow.com/

They will be signing autographs and posing for pics with fans.

Ratings Erosion

"Network TV already was facing ratings erosion. As Mr. Krehbiel demonstrates, more viewers have switched at least some of their attention to the web and other pursuits. What's more, an increasing number have armed themselves with ad-zapping DVRs -- so even if they watch, there's no guarantee some of them will see the ads. Now the strike threatens to accelerate the trend by removing the very things that draw millions of potential consumers to the tube night after night: glitzy special events and water-cooler shows.

The networks face their strongest test in the weeks ahead -- proving their writer-less offerings can still draw people. "What I'm going to be looking for is how does this stuff do through the end of the first quarter? How are these guys doing year to year? Does 'Dance Wars' over time have as much power as 'Dancing With the Stars'? Does 'Idol' keep going in the same direction?" asked PHD's Mr. Swift. The answers could bolster advertiser confidence or prove broadcast is no longer the biggest piece of the media pie."

America's Top Dog

"Is CBS barking up the wrong tree by looking for its next big reality stars among the canine population? The network is going forward with a reality show tentatively titled America's Top Dog.

According to CBS, "America's Top Dog a new one hour-long series where 'man's best friend' can help its owner win big money! Owners and their pets - from 'pageant dogs' to those dogs simply trained at home - will live together and battle it out in a dog competition that puts the dog's relationship with the person who has raised and trained it to the test. In the end, only one team of loving owner and faithful dog will emerge the winner in this dog-eat-dog competition!"

Jericho: DVD Review

Jericho DVD Review

"For a while it looked like this DVD release was going to be Jericho: The Complete Series. That would have been quite annoying as Jericho ended on a cliffhanger, with lots of questions still to resolve. Fortunately, the show had a fairly dedicated fanbase and was provided with the perfect angle for a show-saving campaign. As much as I (and many other people) really liked Jericho, if it had not been for the whole "Nuts" thing, Jericho almost certainly would not have gotten a second season. As luck would have it though, the "Nuts" bit provided a perfect avenue for fans to protest the show's cancellation in a tangible way.

While the series does get off to something of a slow start, it continually improves as the season progresses. The story is compelling, the characters are well-rounded and there are some surprising twists along the way."