On Saturday, October 22ed the cast and crew of the cult classic TV show Jericho met together for a reunion BBQ and get together at the home of series star Skeet Ulrich. The following stars attended Sprague Grayden (Heather), Shoshannah Stern (Bonnie), Ashley Scott (Emily). Bob Stephenson (Deputy Jimmy), Ken Mitchell (Eric), Michael Gaston (Gray), Dan Shotz (Producer), Skeet Ulrich (Jake), Timothy Omundson (Constantino), Lennie James (Hawkins) Portions of the event were live-streamed for fans of the show over the social media app Periscope by Jericho actress Ashley Scott, a long time Save Jericho, supporter. The reunion was lots of fun to watch and included many of the cast members reminiscing about their characters and where they would be after 10 years.
Jericho is a special show with a large and diverse fan base, the BBQ despite being announced to the fans very suddenly was viewed over the Periscope app by thousands. The excitement of seeing the cast together again after 10 years was very exciting and drove the Jericho fan reach to historic levels. So, the question that must be asked is this, was this just a simple Jericho cast reunion for the cast and crew? Or was it possibly something more?
Let’s take a look at what the Jericho cast reunion could mean about the future of Jericho
The Facts
Jericho is a very popular show on CBS All Access and streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime, several years ago Netflix reached out to CBS to acquire the rights to produce more seasons of the show. CBS declined and they started CBS all Access a short time later. There have been rumors and rumblings as of late that indicate that Jericho could be revived on CBS All Access at some point. Jericho was brought back in a graphic novel for a very successful two-book run. The third graphic novel “Season 5” as it is being called has been delayed for unknown reasons. To say that fan support for a Jericho continuation is there is a massive understatement, the old fans want to see more Jericho as do the legions of new fans being brought in from Netflix and CBS All Access (A simple google keywords search shows that Jericho continuation has a high search rate)
The Possibilities
Every major star of Jericho was present at the reunion (Alicia Coppola and Richard Speight Jr were unable to attend due to filming commitments) There is a large possibility that the reunion was more than a simple BBQ and was in fact also a cast meeting to discuss a Jericho continuation. It is not unusual for a show/movie that is planning a continuation to gather the stars of the show/movie to discuss if everyone is on board to return and play their roles. This allows for producers or writers to see cast interest and also to discuss possible storylines.
An interesting speculation is found in the audio and video of the reunion that was live-streamed on Periscope, in the following link right as the video is starting (literally in the first second) the video catches the word “Negotiation” or “Renegotiation” it is unclear who has said it or if it refers to Jericho or not. Here is the link
What makes the soundbite more interesting is the fact that the conversation that includes the words “Negotiation” or “Renegotiation” has been edited out and removed for the Youtube version of the Periscope videos. Here is the link for the Youtube version. This raises the question about whether or not this was just a fun BBQ or if it served as a possible cast meeting for Jericho season 3. Unofficial discussions regarding pay and contract would be casually discussed to give everyone an idea about what to expect. The removal of the first few seconds that mention the word “Negotiation” or “Renegotiation” seems to be significant. It could also simply have been removed to make a cleaner video.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dcEZpPGiLA
Now the above speculation on the videos must be taken with a grain of salt as we did not hear the context of the conversation or who said it, but it does raise interesting possibilities. It is also not a coincidence that the event was partially live streamed, this could have been done to gauge fan reaction to the stars being together again. The chemistry certainly was there as all the stars seemed very comfortable together and bantered back and forth with ease. It also should be mentioned that the cast all looked very good for being 10 years older, with many of them looking barely older than they did 10 years ago.
Conclusion
As I said before this information should be taken with a grain of salt, the world of entertainment news is very fickle and can change on a dime. That being said this Jericho cast reunion BBQ when put together with all the other information that has been being rumored heavily suggests it may have served another purpose, as well as a fun, get-together.