CBS orders seven episodes for midseason

CBS has officially given "Jericho" new life, but the network is also challenging the show's fans to make it worth the network's while.

Following a fan-led crusade that included buying ads in the showbiz trade magazines and sending some 20 tons of nuts to CBS executives, the show has been given a seven-episode order for midseason. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, writing on the show's message board, acknowledged the campaign was a primary force in the decision.

"Wow! Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime-time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard," Tassler writes. "As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of 'Jericho' for midseason next year."

Tassler adds that "in success," there would be a chance to extend the show's life even further. But she also notes that for that to happen, the "loyal and passionate" audience that rallied around the show after its cancellation has to get bigger.

"We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks," she says.

The network, for its part, will repeat the show over the summer and stream episodes and clips to its online CBS Audience Network. A DVD of the first season is due in September, and Tassler also makes reference to "continuing the story of 'Jericho' in the digital world" in advance of the new episodes. What form that might take isn't clear yet.

When CBS announced its 2007-08 schedule last month, "Jericho" wasn't on it. At the time Tassler said the show's ratings dropoff in the second half of the season -- which followed a long hiatus and was aggravated by airing opposite "American Idol" for several weeks -- was largely to blame.

Then came the fan campaign, which was one of the better-organized efforts on behalf of a cancelled show in recent memory. Viewers inundated CBS with calls, e-mails and more than 20 tons of peanuts, the latter a reference the season finale's last line, which echoed Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's response to a German surrender request at Bastogne during World War II.