Clay Aiken: 'Jericho' Fans Should Thank Me

The latest? You might be surprised by this.

"The show 'Jericho,' I loved it," said former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken to the Houston Chronicle. "I started blogging about it on my fan site. It got canceled, and I blogged about how upset I was. I said, 'The Claymates can do anything. How do we get this show back on the air?"

After his readers figured out what a "Claymate" was (realizing it was them), apparently they not only went into action, but did everything but actually invent the concept of a fan campaign, at least according to Aiken.

"Honestly, within a week, they had organized a campaign amongst 'Jericho' fans to send nuts to CBS. It kind of started in that place. And it's back on the air. It just blows my mind."

So was Clay Aiken the mastermind of the "Save Jericho" campaign? Not even some of those who read the story believe it.

"It's pretty egotistical to believe that the groundswell of support for 'Jericho' was due to his blogging about it," said one poster who commented on the story named Dcsports. "Does anyone believe he really has that much influence?"

Another poster named Sweat1951 agreed.

"As a 'Jericho' fan who has been involved since the beginning, I must object," they said. "First, support for saving 'Jericho' did not come from his blog. Secondly, the Claymates had nothing to do with organizing this campaign. This campaign was well under way when someone posted on our message board that the Claymates wanted to get involved. It is unfair for this credit to be taken from the people who actually deserve it."

Not everyone was ready to hang Aiken out to dry, however. Another poster named Suzieeq71 said that like many other things, Aiken is just misunderstood.

"I really don't think he means that his fans organized the 'Jericho' thing," she said. "It sounded to me that he said his fans joined their efforts. I'm sure he wouldn't want to assume that. He seemed very excited about it being renewed. He's just appreciative of his fans helping out."

Of course, that doesn't mean the Claymates didn't play a significant role, at least according to Suzieeq71.

"I think they helped in making that happen. There are people who are fans of his that also like 'Jericho,' from what I've read."

Talk about this story