The Show That Wasted a Nuclear Apocalypse on Small-Town Feuds

Jericho premiered on CBS on September 20, 2006, with a clean, brutal premise: 23 major American cities have just been destroyed by nuclear attack, and the show watches what happens to one small Kansas town left standing in the silence. Skeet Ulrich plays Jake Green, the prodigal son who comes home just in time for the world to end. What follows across 29 episodes is a show that, in this paper’s view, never quite decides whether it wants to be a family drama, a survival thriller or a Western — and that indecision costs it.

Trailer, via Trailere vhd.

A Town Called Jericho, Kansas

The setting does the heavy lifting early. Jericho is a fictional town roughly 47 miles east of the Kansas–Colorado border, near the real Colby, though a map in episode three places it near Ness City. The show says the town sits 90 miles west of the also fictional Rogue River and about 330 miles from Wichita. Population is mentioned as almost 5,000 in season one’s “Fallout,” down from 1,000 in 1957. After the war with neighboring New Bern, that number falls to 3,000. One grocery store, owned by Gracie Leigh. Two mayors across the run.

That is a solid foundation for a show about infrastructure collapse, and Jericho uses it well in its first stretch. The creators — Stephen Chbosky, Jonathan E. Steinberg and Jon Turteltaub — built a town that feels geographically real, which makes the nuclear premise land harder than it would in a vaguer setting. CBS Paramount Network Television and Junction Entertainment produced it, with Chbosky, Turteltaub and Carol Barbee as executive producers. It aired in more than 30 countries.

Skeet Ulrich and the Ensemble Problem

The cast is large and uneven. Ulrich’s Jake Green is the anchor, a man with a past he does not explain fast enough. Lennie James plays Robert Hawkins, the neighbor with secrets, and James is the best thing in the show whenever he is on screen. Ashley Scott is Emily Sullivan. Kenneth Mitchell is Eric Green. Brad Beyer is Stanley Richmond. Alicia Coppola plays Mimi Clark, promoted from recurring to regular in February 2008.

The series website listed eleven main cast members, according to the source. Gerald McRaney’s Johnston Green runs the town at the open but loses the election to Gray Anderson, played by Michael Gaston. McRaney did not have a regular role in season two. Esai Morales appears only in season two. Pamela Reed’s Gail Green is a regular in season one and recurring in season two. Sprague Grayden, Erik Knudsen and Shoshannah Stern fill out the younger tier.

That is a lot of people to service in 29 episodes, and Jericho spreads itself thin. The show keeps introducing towns, factions and rivalries — New Bern’s war with Jericho being the biggest — without giving most of its own residents enough to do.

Cancelled, Revived, Cancelled Again

The production history is the most dramatic thing about Jericho. It ran from September 20, 2006, to March 25, 2008. CBS cancelled it after its first full season because of low ratings. A fan campaign persuaded the network to bring the show back for another season, of seven episodes. Then it was cancelled again.

A fan campaign persuaded the network to bring the show back for another season, of seven episodes, after which it was cancelled again.

In November 2008, TV Guide reported that The CW would air repeats of Jericho to replace the cancelled series Valentine. In 2007, Jericho ranked number 11 on TV Guide’s Top Cult Shows Ever. In 2009, plans were announced for a feature film based on the series, later cancelled, plus a continuation of the storylines in comics. IDW Publishing released a new comic series for Season 3 in 2009 and Season 4 in August 2012.

The numbers tell the story CBS told: 22 episodes, then seven. A network that orders seven episodes is ordering a short season, not a full one, and the run ends there.

Where Jericho Actually Fails

The premise is stronger than the execution. Jericho wants the paranoia of a post-attack America and the warmth of a small-town ensemble, and it rarely earns both in the same hour. The nuclear backdrop is treated as a fact rather than a pressure. Towns trade, fight and negotiate, but the show’s grip on scarcity — food, fuel, medicine, information — stays loose. The Western genre tag the series carries is fair in theory and thin in practice.

The bigger problem is pacing. A 22-episode first season forces the show to stall its own apocalypse. Mysteries get stretched, characters keep secrets past the point of sense, and the New Bern war is a late arrival rather than an earned one. The ensemble does not help. With eleven mains, Jericho gives almost no one a complete arc. James and Ulrich carry the load. The rest cycle through subplots that resolve or simply stop.

What Jericho Got Right

Two things. First, the town itself. Jericho, Kansas is a real piece of construction — a specific place with a highway, a road, a grocery store, a mayoral election and a population count that changes because the story changes it.

Second, the premise’s timing. A show about 23 American cities going dark, airing on CBS in 2006, was not escapism. It was a nerve the network touched. The cancellation after one full season, the seven-episode reprieve, the second cancellation — CBS gave its reasons once, and low ratings was the one it named.

The comic continuation and the abandoned film plans suggest the story had somewhere to go. The screen version never got there. Jericho is a show with a great first idea, a real cult following, and a run that never matches its own opening image.

CBS · Cult TV · Jericho · post-apocalyptic · Skeet Ulrich · TV Review