If television uber-fans have taught the networks anything, it’s that they are unwilling to let ratings dictate when a show gets axed.

The CBS series “Jericho” was dying a slow death in 2007 at the hand of the Nielsen ratings, but an online movement resurrected the doomsday-scenario drama. Fans shipped bags of peanuts to network executives, an homage to a “nuts” reference made on the series.

Such wild behavior actually got “Jericho” back on the air, if only for a short while. It was quickly canceled, again. Executives must learn from this mistake. Toss a geek a bone and they will beg for scraps every time a show’s fate looks grim.

Another case in point is NBC’s hit-or-miss action comedy “Chuck,” starring Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski. When the series debuted in 2007, it attracted more than 9.2 million viewers. It saw a drop of more than a million for the rest of the season, but was pulling in a respectable weekly score, averaging more than 7 million. As the second season began, however, viewers started to jump ship. This season’s opener only had 6.6 million viewers.

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