'Jericho' Fans Shell Out For Nuts To Nielsen

OLDSMAR - TV ratings giant Nielsen Media Research on Tuesday hosted perhaps the strangest protest in the company's history - in fact, the first protest of any sort that company officials can recall happening.

Just more than 1,000 pounds of fresh, salted, still-in-the-shell peanuts were delivered to the loading dock of Nielsen's Oldsmar campus as part of a protest by determined fans of the now-canceled TV show "Jericho."

That's 21 50-pound canvas sacks of peanuts - $1,212 worth - all bought and paid for by "Jericho" fans who want to bring the show back to television and blame Nielsen for issuing the low ratings that CBS cited in canceling the show.

"I wouldn't want to take a side on this," said Ryan Freymuller, operations manager for Mickey's Game Time Inc., a peanut supplier in Palm Harbor that delivered the nuts promptly at noon as requested by "Jericho" fans.

"But it's great to see people exercising their First Amendment rights. We're happy to be part of it."

The delivery was a grand, if odd, event for Nielsen employees.

About 50 workers gathered on the loading dock for the delivery - which was all rather polite and announced in advance - and snapped their own camera phone photos and cheered as the Mickey's truck arrived. Another 50 employees watched and cheered from office windows above the dock.

One thing was missing, however: protesters.

"Jericho" fans had tried to organize individual protesters to picket the Nielsen site at noon, but none was present at the nut delivery or within sight of Nielsen's front entrance.

None of the Nielsen employees wanted to be quoted, though several said it was a fun diversion at lunch. Nielsen's internal TV crew covered the event.

Nielsen officials have said they're a bit baffled at why the "Jericho" fans targeted Nielsen's offices. They simply calculate TV ratings, and it was CBS that canceled the show, not Nielsen.

Why peanuts?

Peanuts are an insider's reference to a "Jericho" character who responded "Nuts!" when asked to surrender. "Jericho" fans in the past dumped nuts at the CBS offices in New York, helping prompt the network to bring the show back for a short return and final episode.

Leading up to Tuesday, "Jericho" fans organized an online campaign to buy bags of nuts through the Web site of Mickey's Peanuts for delivery all at once to Nielsen's offices.

The peanuts, which were the center of attention, spent just two minutes on the Nielsen loading dock and weren't even brought inside.

Instead, parked right next to the Mickey's delivery van was a delivery van for the food bank America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay, which came in advance to pick up the nuts as a donation from Nielsen.

The bags of nuts went from one van to another, crossing a distance of about 10 feet.

"We feed thousands of people a day, and peanuts are a great source of protein," said Marc Sutherland, resource development director for America's Second Harvest, who came for the event. "It's a lot of peanuts, but we'll go through them in about two days."

All this seems unlikely to persuade CBS to bring back the show. CBS officials say they appreciate the passion of "Jericho" fans but wish there were more, enough to keep the show on the air.