Here we go again, Jericho fans! We?ve been posting a series of recent chats we had with the show?s hot cast (be sure to check out our interview with Lennie James and our interviews with Alicia Coppola and Brad Beyer). And today, to celebrate Jericho?s penultimate second-season episode?which airs tonight on CBS?we?re changing things up a bit by posting our chats with executive producer Carol Barbee and superfan Shaun Daily, the Nevada disc jockey whose efforts to save the show after its less-than-stellar first-season ratings, resulted in the now-legendary ?nuts? campaign (in which fans, inspired by a line of dialogue, send CBS nuts, protesting Jericho?s cancellation). Both Barbee and Daily had quite a bit to say regarding the show?s future?

By Joseph McCabe

Shaun Daily

The ?nuts? campaign was pretty much responsible for saving the show, wasn?t it?

Well, it was one of the things that saved the show. The nuts campaign was the focal point that got everyone mobilized to do something. Another part of it was CBS looking at the numbers, going back and looking at the iTunes, downloads and the DVR downloads. And once all of that added together with the fans, they decided to give it a second chance.

You were instrumental in this campaign. Can you talk about how it developed?

Well, I did a local show in Vegas, and I had Carol Barbee on, and her and I became friends. I did my new show, my internet show, and I brought her on again about a month before the campaign started. Then I brought her on again the night before the season finale, and John Steinberg was on, and at the time the show was kind of on the bubble. So we told the fans, ?Let CBS know you?re watching the show!? Then the night after the show I was taking calls with just the fans, and I thought, ?You know, he said, ?Nuts??let?s send peanuts to CBS and see if it works! At least it would get their attention, show them that there were fans out there.? Basically it was supposed to be a ?go to hell? to CBS, because they had canceled the show. I knew it had a lot of viewers?international fans loved the show?because on my show I had people calling in from Israel, Australia, Brazil, the UK?and they couldn?t understand why CBS would cancel the show. A lot of people compared it to Battlestar Galactica. It?s got a worldwide appeal, and it?s grounded in reality. Some people could smuggle in some suitcase nukes and set them off and people would be in a real-life Jericho.

What have you thought of season 2?

I like season 2. It?s like the second half of season 1, but on speed. It?s moving fast but not too fast that you can?t follow the story. It?s moving at a pretty good clip. I?m just anxious to see what happens at the end of the season. There?s two cliffhangers that they filmed?to see which one they?re going to go with. There?s one that kind of ties things up a little more neatly and one that leaves things more open. So let?s hope. And everyone watch!

What do you think are the chances of a season 3?

I think it?s pretty good. CBS doesn?t have a lot in its arsenal for the fall season. They know the fans love the show. They?re looking for a show with buzz, you know?well, the buzz is with Jericho. I know the timeslot was an issue, but hopefully this season they can sandwich it in with like shows. I mean, you sit there and watch the show with your family and sit down and talk; it gives you a quality hour with your family. Some people watch American Idol, some people watch the bug-eating shows, but Jericho can bring them [the family] all together.

What?s your greatest fear?

Nuclear attack. It?s the big unknown.

Carol Barbee

For people who aren?t familiar with Jericho, how would you describe the show?

Jericho started out when the U.S. is attacked. Nuclear attack takes out twenty-six U.S. cities. We don?t know who did it, we don?t know why they did it; we don?t know what?s coming. We tell the story from the perspective of Jericho, Kansas; which is not attacked. But they can see the attack, and it all starts to come to their town. So it?s all about how these people deal with that attack?how would you deal with this kind of situation? It was very inspired by Hurricane Katrina?what do you do when there?s something that happens outside your control, your town is devastated, and your government cannot or will not come to your aid? Who do you become? Who do your neighbors become? So that was the experiment of Jericho. The first season was all about, how do you save this town? How do you save yourself and your family? The second season is about, how do you save a country, how do you save a system of government? What do we choose to keep, what do we choose to give up in order to feel safe again? And who are we as individuals in relation to our government?

Can you tell us the role you play behind the scenes on Jericho?

Well, I?m the executive producer, which, in television, means I?m also the head writer. All decisions kind of come through me. I have two producing partners, and the three of us run the whole physical production and make all the decisions.

What can you say about how season 2?s been going?

We came back for season 2 having been raised from the dead by our amazing fans. So we really felt that we wanted to come back and say thank you to them, and blow it out and tell them a great story and give them a great ride. And make them feel vindicated for sending out their peanuts and getting us back, so that?s what we did?we came back to say thank you. We put twenty-two episodes into seven, because that?s all we were given, so something huge happens in every episode: major character turns, huge action. We tried to be very judicious about where we spent our money on special effects and action sequences and all that. So season 2 is about one thing?it?s about a mission between Jake and Hawkins, it?s about the country. Last season it was about a town, and the aftermath of that town after an attack, this season is about saving a country, a system of government, a way of life. It?s about the individual?s responsibility to do that. We see through our people?we see them have to step up and be part of this larger scene in the greater country.

There have been rumors that if Jericho did not continue on CBS it would continue on another network?can you speak about that?

I don?t have anything specific to say about that, but I would say, ?Yes.? I would hope that to be true. There were other people who were interested in the show during our first cancellation, and of course the Sci-Fi Channel is running our first two seasons. So we?ll talk about those things once we see what our fate is on CBS.

Are you guys pretty hopeful that, one way or another, there will be a season 3?

I?m cautiously hopeful that one way or another there will be a season 3. I know how much CBS wants this to succeed for them. I think that what you?re seeing in the numbers has less to do with the show and more to do with what people are drawn to, the scripted dramas on niche markets, while these networks are about sort of broader content and reality. I?m happy we got the numbers that we did and I?m happy with the demo. More and more they?re dealing with a shifting landscape, but I think one way or another Jericho will have a life.

What is your greatest fear?

Water?and there?s water everywhere! [Laughs.] I think my greatest fear is being separated from my kids.