Ever since the CBS television show Jericho went off the airways in 2008 there has been a movement to bring the show back in some way or form. Over the years, the Save Jericho Campaign has only grown in size and popularity. With the growth of the fan base and the adding of untold new fans from the show’s popularity on CBS All Access and Netflix, there have come many rumors and bits of news about the resurrection of the cult classic. In the first few years after its cancellation, there were credible rumors about the show getting a film treatment. Those rumors passed on and for a while, it seemed that hopes for a continuation of the show were becoming slimmer and slimmer. That all changed when the Jericho comic books and graphic novels hit the shelves, received with massive excitement, the comic books, and graphic novels flew off the shelves and both “Seasons” of the graphic novels had multiple reprints as each printing kept selling out. Sources close to CBS said they had not realized how popular Jericho was and how shocked they were at the graphic novel selling out repeatedly.
Now there are more whispers of Jericho’s possible resurrection on Paramount Plus, so here is everything we know about the possible return of Jericho.
CBS Turned down Netflix’s offer
A few years ago, Netflix offered to resurrect Jericho and produce new episodes for the streaming service. Mysteriously CBS turned them down, this was an odd decision by CBS as the production of more Jericho episodes could only mean more profit for the network. In the form of more Comic books, DVD sales, and attention to the brand. The only conceivable reason for CBS turning down Netflix’s offer is that they had their own plans for the cult show.
The delay of the Season 5 Graphic Novel
With the high sales numbers of the first two Jericho graphic novels, there has been an odd silence when it comes to the release date for the next installment. This would seem to indicate that the comic book may have been halted due to work on a Jericho script, as they would have to halt the comic to not spoil any possible story for the TV show.
Black Sails was offered another season but turned it down
This is pure speculation, but one of Jericho’s producers and co-executive producers Dan Shotz has been working as executive producer on the hit show Black Sails for Starz. The show was reportedly offered a 5th season but decided to close the show in its fourth season. Now, this could simply be because the narrative was better served to end in the fourth season vs the fifth. The other possibility is this, if CBS All Access wants to bring Jericho back they will need Dan Shotz to produce and guide the show since the nature of filming shows on streaming services is more akin to a giant movie shoot it would take a lot of time. plus the shoot would need to start soon. If Jericho is brought back to CBS All Access it would be a big undertaking and one that CBS would want to publicize to gain as many new subscribers as possible.
The Jericho Cast Reunion
This was an interesting event. Jericho actor Skeet Ulrich hosted a BBQ get-together at his home for the show’s 10th anniversary. In attendance were Dan Shotz and many of the actors and actresses from the show. The event was broadcasted on Periscope, in one of the videos you can hear Dan Shotz say “Negotiation” or “Negotiating” now normally this would be brushed off as a fragment of a conversation, but when the video was uploaded to YouTube the portion that included the word “Negotiation” or “Negotiating” was edited out and removed from the video.
Rumors, rumors everywhere
There are rumors about the return of Jericho everywhere, and this is odd for a show that has been off the air for close to 10 years. No one hears rumors about the return of Almost Human or Pushing Daisies, so one must ask why there are rumors about the return of a dead show? Could it be that maybe it’s not as dead as people thought?
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery was meant to be the crown jewel of Paramount Plus, but sadly the show has had nothing but trouble. Having lost its showrunner, had negative feedback from fans about the ship design, negative feedback about its story, and negative feedback about its casting the show is in trouble. Now, this is not to say the show is doomed, just that it’s not proving to be the slam dunk that CBS was hoping for. With news coming out that the show will most likely miss its May 2017 release date (it already missed it’s January one) The evidence is very likely that Star Trek Discovery could very well be delayed till Fall of 2017 or ever Winter 2018. CBS needs a win, a slam dunk, and announcing Jericho would be that win they need. It would allow for repairs to be made to STD and bring back some goodwill.
A Jericho return has not been ruled out by the studio.
This is a very important one, CBS knows how popular Jericho is, it has seen the graphic novel sales and campaigns for its return. CBS has not announced Jericho is canceled for good and won’t be coming back. They have been silent on the matter.
In conclusion, the world of Film and TV is very fluid and can change on a dime, rumors from one day can be obsolete the next. Looking at everything mentioned above there seems to be a good possibly that Jericho could be announced as a new show on CBS All Access. With the delay of the next graphic novel, the freeing up of Dan Shotzs schedule, the Jericho cast reuniting (cast reunions are frequently used as cover for casual negotiations) the mentioning of “Negotiation” at the cast reunion and the delay of Star trek: Discover, it would seem we are closer than ever to a possible resurrection of Jericho.
Only time will tell………