We were told they were coming, but it still didn't prepare the Variety newsroom for the sight of 26 cases of unsalted peanuts showing up at our door on Tuesday afternoon.

"Jericho" fans are nothing if not determined. The loyalists who helped save the show from annihilation after its first season with a well-orchestrated campaign last year have regrouped to find more creative -- and not inexpensive -- ways to bring attention to their cause. (Last year, "Jericho" fans sent nuts by the truckload to CBS execs.)

The nut-cases delivered to Variety all featured a sticker that read "Save Jericho! "Nuts to Nielsen!!!" highlighting the shortcomings in the ratings service's ability to track viewing on more than just the old-fashioned live telecast.

"Jericho" stalwarts are convinced that if CBS could get its arms around the number of people who are watching the show via DVRs, web streaming and paid downloads, it might be enough to have convinced the Eye to hang tough rather than nuke the show for a second time as it did last month. The industry's inability to get a clear understanding of the new world of on-demand viewing habits is a big problem, bigger than even a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of the lone prairie.

"Jericho" fans have also shelled out in the past few days for full-page ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter designed to convince another net or cabler to give the show a chance. Pretty bold, given that CBS Paramount Network TV could probably bring the law down on them for shopping something that isn't exactly theirs to shop. Ad even goes so far as to point interested buyers to CBS Par Entertainment boss Nancy Tellem. CBS, meanwhile, has migrated the show to the "CBS Classics" page of its website and is offering web streaming of all 29 episodes from both seasons.

The "Jericho" fandom may be an irritant to CBS Par execs, but at a time when even TV's top shows are taking double-digit ratings hits, it's heartening to see that TV, even canceled TV, can still stir up such passion in viewers who adopt shows as their own.

So thanks to all the "Jericho" lovers out there, and thanks also for the protein boost that many of us at Variety will enjoy during the next few weeks (months?) as we work our way through the peanuts. About an hour after the delivery arrived, the newsroom was a-poppin' with the sound of peanut shells being opened.

It's always intriguing to see how the Live-plus-7 ratings stack up against premiere telecast numbers, or more accurately, the Live-plus-same-day viewing stats. It's the quantifiable evidence that DVRs are changing the world, one show at a time.

CBS has brought to our attention that "Jericho's" preem numbers weren't quite as modest as they seemed from the overnights. Per CBS: "'Jericho's' second season premiere (Feb. 12) ratings increased by +15% in adults 18-49 (3.0/07 from 2.6/07), +17% in adults 25-54 (3.5/08 from 3.0/07) and by more than one million viewers (8.14m from 7.13m, +14%) compared to its live plus same day ratings."

Also, CBS was quick to note the high volume of viewers who trekked to CBS.com and other sources to watch the premiere via web streaming. The Eye sez the "Jericho" opener was streamed 520,000 times during the week after the broadcast preem (Feb. 12-18) and another 180,000 times during the following week (Feb. 18-25).

For those who still remember the details of the WGA strike fight, all of that streaming did fall within the 17-day "promotional window," meaning that the scribes of that seg won't make a cent. Then again, if the stream scene helps keep the show on the air...Moreover, CBS also reports that "Jericho" generated some 760,000 streams of segs from its first season during the week of its second season preem. And being more than a year past the original telecast date, those Web-enabled repeats pay out to scribes at 2% of distributor's gross from the get-go, with no promo window getting in the way.

Meanwhile, media buying agency Magna Global has issued a detailed report on TV viewing during the strike. The general conclusion is that viewing levels remained pretty constant during the November-December period of the strike and didn't start to take a dive until the drought of original segs of scripted series really hit in January. Interestingly, the Magna study shows that there was less delayed viewing via DVRs during the run of the strike, indicating that viewers weren't as interested in keeping up with the replacement reality shows and repeats as they otherwise would be with fresh segs of their scripted faves. The Magna study also notes that retention of audience during the commercial breaks -- a very important measure now with the commercial ratings now determining ad rates -- is far lower with most unscripted skeins than it is with comedies and dramas.

So writes Magna analyst Brian Hughes:

"The primary reason for this (dip in delayed DVR viewing) is that the networks are not gaining as much now from DVR playback as they were in 4th quarter due to an influx of repeats and reality shows. This is clear from the narrowing of the gap between live and live+7 program ratings since January, but the effects can also be seen within average commercial minute ratings...Original reality series, which have been rolled out in force to fill schedule gaps, have a (commercial ratings) index of 97 (5-6 percentage points below scripted original series). This does not include "American Idol," "Survivor," or "Dancing With the Stars," which are the three strongest reality shows, and will always skew the average."

Surprised not to see a bigger pop for "Jericho" in its long-awaited return to CBS' sked, particularly after the generally glowing reviews for the new batch of adventures in war-torn Kansas.

Sophomore season preem of the drama, which was resurrected by fandemonium last spring after it was briefly canceled by the Eye, drew 7.1 million viewers and 2.6 rating/7 share in the adults 18-49 demo at 10 p.m.on Tuesday, per final Nielsens.

"Jericho" beat a fresh installment of ABC's "Boston Legal" (7.3 million, 1.8/5) in the demo but tied a repeat of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" (8.3 million, 2.6/7). CBS pushed the show's ardent fans to spread word-of-mouth about the show and organize viewing parties. Those numbers may well bump up the Nielsen geigercounter when the 7-day DVR figures are calculated.

As others have noted, Esai Morales (pictured above) has been a great addition to the "Jericho" ensemble as the hard-ass military dude, Major Beck, who's been dispatched by the gov'n'munt to restore law and order to Dorothy-and-Toto country.

(Pictured right: Ashley Scott and Skeet Ulrich)

It was peanuts and cocktails for the "Jericho" cast and crew members on Tuesday night as the show's extended nuclear family got to escape the cloud they normally live under and live a little at their season one DVD launch party.

Series stars Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott, Kenneth Mitchell, Alicia Coppola and exec producers Carol Barbee, Jon Turteltaub and Jon Steinberg were definitely not in Kansas, but at night spot Crimson in deep Hollywood. CBS Home Ent. and Paramount Home Ent. threw a swanky affair for the little-post-apocalypse-show-that-could.

There's still no word yet from CBS about when the show saved by ardent fan-dom will come back to the Eye's primetime sked, but undoubtedly there was much gratitude expressed Tuesday night that there will even be a season two morning-after to wait for. Most likely, CBS will slot in "Jericho" in after a new series or two bites the dust. Until then, the fans will have to be content with the "Jericho" production blog and other appetite-whetting tidbits offered on CBS.com.

(Pictured above: Skeet Ulrich and Ashley Scott. Pictured below: Kenneth Mitchell and Ulrich flank Jon Turteltaub.)

POSTED BY ELIZABETH GUIDER

They went “nuts” to get it back but now the big question is whether the online fans will go bananas for the return of “Jericho” in January.  The even bigger question is whether the CBS series can lure enough new viewers to convince the Eye network to extend the series order beyond the current commitment of seven new episodes.  (Some 3 million TV viewers had deserted the show by the end of the spring, leading to its cancellation.) 

Exec producer Carol Barbee is one who thinks the trick can be pulled off — and her quickly reassembled production team is poised to gun it if the greenlight order does come down. One thing that might help: The release of season one on DVD beginning Oct. 2 and this summer’s repeats of the cult fave on CBS. Plus a whole bunch of promotion, courtesy of the Eye’s newly pumped up promotional partnerships with some two dozen online platforms, from Comcast to Joost. 

The seven episodes that will be shot during the next two months will be, per Barbee, “greatly compressed’ but also “quick-moving,” with the focus laregely on the town of Jericho itself as it struggles to rebuild itself.

“Obviously we had to become lean and mean and our attention will now be on fewer characters,” Barbee told journalists at the ongoing Television Critics Tour Thursday in L.A. She also said that there would be less time to shoot, seven days per episode, but that the team would try to deliver “the same punch.”

(Pictured above, left to right, Barbee, "Jericho" stars Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James and Ashley Scott.)

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

When CBS entertainment topper Nina Tassler went for a checkup a few months ago and the doc handed her a bag of peanuts instead of test results, she knew it was time to give "Jericho" its second-season pickup.

The Skeet Ulrich series started out well in the ratings last fall but soon began to fade. Then when it went on a three-month hiatus from November to February, pretty much any momentum the show might've had left was quickly evaporated.

"Maybe it wasn't good for the show and maybe it had an impact," Tassler said of the hiatus. You think, Nina?

Once CBS decided not to renew, the emails from outraged viewers came flooding into the exec's offices on Beverly Boulevard. I wonder if the Eye IT guys were able to install a "Jericho" spam filter to allow Tassler and Leslie Moonves to view non-"Jericho" messages in a more timely manner?

Though she wasn't convinced enough the series was viable enough to be put on the fall schedule, Tassler decided "Jericho" was worthy of a midseason slot. CBS has ordered seven new episodes, as Variety reported last month.

"The emails had reached a certain pitch and I thought that maybe this show needs a second chance," said Tassler (pictured left). "I went on the message boards and read the emails. It seemed like a segment of the population felt they weren't being counted."

Certainly "Jericho" fans aren't the first group to sound howls of protest when their favorite shows are canceled. If viewers voices were always heard by network schedulers, "Freaks and Geeks," "Veronica Mars" and "Deadwood" would still be on the air.

Whether the "Jericho" renewal begins a new trend on how much viewer reaction will play into the decision-making process for renewals remains to be seen, but its nice to realize that voices are being heard.

In the first episode back, Tassler said Stanley (Brad Beyer) would be getting engaged.

(Pictured above: Shaun Daily, a Nevada disc jockey who led one of the many fan-fueled "Save 'Jericho'" campaigns.)

-- Stuart Levine