Peanuts won’t save ‘Jericho’ this time

updated 8:45 p.m. ET March 21, 2008

LOS ANGELES - “Jericho,” the post-apocalyptic CBS drama whose devoted fans rallied to save it from cancellation, has met its end.

The show failed to increase its audience and will air its final episode Tuesday, the network said Friday.

“Without question, there are passionate viewers watching this program; we simply wish there were more,” CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said in a statement. “We have no regrets bringing the show back for a second try.”

“Jericho,” which stars Skeet Ulrich, was canceled last May, triggering a fan protest that deluged the network with about 40,000 pounds of peanuts — a tribute to the defiant “Nuts!” line uttered by Ulrich’s character in the first-season finale.

CBS relented and ordered seven new episodes, which started airing in February.

Networks rarely reverse a show’s cancellation, but CBS has proven its flexibility at least once before. In 1983, after “Cagney & Lacey” was canceled and the network was bombarded with protests, the police drama was brought back in 1984 — and ran successfully until 1988.

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The network also likely took into consideration the dent a long hiatus put in the show’s viewership.

Last fall, “Jericho” was averaging 10.5 million viewers. When it returned in the spring, it drew about 8.1 million, about a 23 percent decline from the first half of the season. It’s been averaging about 6 million viewers in its current run.

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