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...and... how many cast members do they think will just be waiting around to see if this gets picked up? Granted, it's not exactly an A-list group; but someone on there could end up with something else.

What gives?

I watch the show because I find it's cheap production values and pulp-like story charming. I can't see where the money's going because, really, the show looks like ass aside from one or two moments (jet fight at end of season 2).

So explain to me, how can this show be considered a big production when it's so cheap looking?

A case could be made why those "don't count" because it doesn't actually matter how many people are watching THE SHOW. What matters is how many people are watching THE COMMERCIALS. Because the webcasting forces users to watch commercials those numbers should carry some force. DVR users are forwarding past the commercials so they're 'worthless' in terms of calculating value to advertisers.

Please.

Pretty please

The majority of streams and downloads come from fans who tape the episode and remove the commercials....advertising is how the stations make their money and torrents remove those advers, so there is little money to be made.

Now of CBS made Jericho available for free, online with a 20sec advert at the beginning, and no more after that, it's a compromise people could live with, but of course they won't do that. You'd either have to pay to watch the show or it would be full of commercials. So people go to torrents instead.

The fact is, the only shows that get high ratings anymore are the "AAA" shows like Lost and reality shows. Lost gets high ratings because people can't wait to find out what happens, and reality shows get high ratings because of the "live" factor when it comes to voting etc.

Interestingly though, Battlestar Galactica is a "AAA" show that doesn't get high ratings though that tends to be down to Sci-Fi's airdate policy.

Which brings up a related point...in an age of the internet and video games, coupled with long work hours and family life, people jut don't have the time to sit down and watch every show on TV.

I also think that people are getting sick of the US commercial system, where you have an ad break every 9 minutes or so. When you write a tv show for US television, you're working towards ad breaks, making it harder to tell interesting stories when you have to break every few minutes.

Doctor Who is cut by Sci-Fi because it doesn't fit into the advert structure. TV in the US isn't shows with commercials in between, it's commercials with shows in between.

It's a busy world, and people don't what to watch 20 minutes worth of commercials in every hour...so they watch the show when they can, downloaded from torrents, with ad breaks cut out, in which case the studios don't make any money from torrents and even if it's popular on a torrent, if it's not making them any money, they cancel it.

Jericho may be huge on torrents, but it doesn't matter because the studio won't benefit from advertising, and if the tv ratings are low enough, the show gets cancelled.

I'll take some more Jericho, thank you.

Certainly before most of the shit shows this McPoops fellow is asking for more of.

...also Journeyman was cool...you just had to be doin somethin else while youre watchin it...*watch the episode while cleaning dishes*...

I like how the series ended. They did a decent job with the limited time they had to wrap up the series. I wonder what was the cliffhanger alternate ending? Would it have ended with Jake on the plane about to be shot down? Guess I'll have to check out the DVD to find out.