Jericho Seeks A New Home

Carol Barbee, executive producer of CBS’ canceled post-apocalyptic series Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that talks are ongoing to find the show another home, perhaps on a cable network.

“I can’t really say [much] about specifics, and, … partially, it’s because I’m not the one having those conversations,” Barbee said in an interview on March 24, the eve of the show’s final episode. “[CBS] Paramount [Television, which produces the show,] has been pursing it, and our agents have been into that, so, you know, I am pushing those people and coming up with ideas to have those people pursue.”

Barbee wouldn’t offer details about any talks. “There were several ideas that have been floated, and there was some interest, but we’ll have to see,” she said. “It wasn’t something that could be sewn up before we were going to air the finale. … It would have been better had we been able to announce one with the other, but it just didn’t happen that fast.”

Barbee said that she and the show’s cast and crew got official word of the show’s cancellation at the end of last week, in time to choose one of two endings for the season finale: A cliffhanger or a series ender. “We were told that they were having a meeting on Thursday, … internally at CBS, to decide which of the endings to show for this Tuesday night’s finale, and then we were given the heads up after that meeting that they were going to show the alternate [ending, with the series finale], which obviously to us meant that we were going to finish our run on CBS,” Barbee said. Barbee asked CBS to delay its formal announcement for 24 hours so she could inform the cast and crew; the news broke on Friday.

If Jericho is not picked up for another season by a TV network, Barbee said that she could envision it living on in some other form. “There’s definitely an Internet series to be had, and we always talked about a graphic novel, and … a movie,” Barbee said. “I mean, there are lots of things that I could easily see as a way to continue the story.”

But time may be running out. Jericho wrapped its second season of episodes back in November, just as the writers’ strike was beginning. Since then, the cast and crew have been freed to pursue other projects, and the show’s sets and backlot have been dismantled and either destroyed or put into storage. Barbee herself has moved on to another series, Swingtown, created by Jericho alumnus Mike Kelley, about the lives of couples experimenting with sexual and social mores in a 1970s Chicago suburb, which will air on CBS this summer and is shooting on the same stages once occupied by Jericho.

Looking back on Jericho, Barbee was pleased that it attracted a core of die-hard fans who were responsible for getting CBS to resurrect the show for a second season. “We appreciated the second life that we had, and we feel like we’ve made the most of it, and we will just be forever indebted to the fans for taking us on this amazing ride,” she said. “I think it will always be a highlight in our careers, that we got to be a part of that.” Jericho’s finale, “Patriots and Tyrants,” airs March 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

(Fans wishing to write SCI FI Channel about picking Jericho up should NOT use the scifiwire@scifi.com e-mail address, but rather should send snail mail here: SCI FI Channel, 21st Floor, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.) –Patrick Lee, News Editor