Almost everyone I talk to online knows about Community. Is this another Conan thing, where NBC is not counting Internet views?
And am I the only one who doesn’t understand how they can decide whether to keep the show or not if they are not airing it and getting data on who likes to watch it?
Community is SO MUCH Better than Up All Night, Whitney, and a few others. this is sad news.
Slate’s take on it – three reasons why it’ll be back:
I really hope they try to hit the 100 episodes mark at least. I know shows generally start to get stale around season 3, but Community is as good and creative as ever these last few episodes. I have no doubt they can keep it fresh and great for another 2 seasons.
So, we really are in the evil timeline. Everybody at NBC is wearing those felt goatees. We must call on Horsebot 3000 to save the day!
Seriously, I hate this. I fell in love with Community from the first paintball episode, and it’s a very, very smart and funny show. This season started a bit slow, but since Troy and Abed’s apartment, it’s been hilarious. Such great moments in this series - the paintball episodes, the KFC space simulator, the chase through the dorm blanket fort, the multiple timelines, the ‘flashback’ episode, every time Dean Pelton appears. How will I get through late winter and spring without fresh Community?
And I also dislike the angle blaming 30 Rock for this. Uh, 30 Rock and Community coexisted peacefully on Thursdays the past two years. Now that Whitney is stinking up its time slot, NBC is trying desperately to save that, and give Up All Night a boost, by putting Community on standby. Poor show, NBC. Poor show. It’s time for Abed to go all pew-pew on your ass!
the cool guys in Hollywood must all play paintball - it’s figured prominently in episodes of Community, How I Met Your Mother, and Big Bang Theory.
I wonder if the fanaticism of Community’s fanbase is the reason why NBC decided to pick it for hiatus as opposed to Whitney or Up All Night. You always hear that viewer attrition is the biggest problem when shows go on hiatus cause people forget that a show exists when they haven’t seen it for a while. With too many shows and not enough slots, why not pick the one with the lowest ratings but has the most devoted fans? Whitney would be as good as cancelled if they put it on hiatus since most people will forget about it two seconds after it goes off the air. While that sounds like the best possible option to me, network executives probably have some sort of ratings maximization that they’re aiming for. Community fans could be counted on to welcome back their show whenever it’s scheduled to come back.
Still, it sucks though, but in a way, it seems to show that NBC has some faith in it? Right? Or am I just fooling myself?
Well this is depressing. Community is my favorite show right now.
I guess all I can hope is that we end up getting a full season and the quality is not decreased by anything related to this.
If Community gets canceled I would like to boycott NBC, but it occurs to me that there would be nothing to boycott.
On the bright side, 30 Rock is coming back. I like 30 Rock too.
I think we should blame the Network Morons ( I mean Heads) at NBC for expecting Community to stand up against the highest Rated Sitcom on TV. It goes head-to-head with Big Bang, and I love both, and I wish NBC would move something else to 8pm and move community to 8:30
It does seem to have a decent bit of fan overlap. I have no idea why the hell networks do that. Let’s schedule our dancing show against their dancing show! Let’s schedule our geeky sitcom vs their geeky sitcom! I remember back when Arrested Development was up against Curb Your Enthusiasm. Why the fuck do networks do this? They take a niche audience and split them up for no reason. Put Community up against According to Jim or some shit where you know they aren’t going to split the same audience.
I heard Donald Glover on NPR this morning. He’s got a nerd-core hip-hop album out now. He struck me as a particularly insightful interviewee compared to most actors who come across as quite vapid and dull on even on pre-planned late night talk show interviews.
Most DVRs have dual tuners. Or if you still use a VCR, you can watch one show live while taping the other. If you have cable, the shows are available On Demand.
I can’t imagine scheduling my life around when the shows are broadcast on live TV.
His fourth album, actually. Glover is a multi-talented guy.
It’s a Blorgon plot!
That is streets ahead, SenorBeef.
Maybe this is just the optimist in me, but I don’t think they’re in any danger of being cancelled. It seems that even if they don’t get the best ratings, Community is still strong with a lot of fans.
You totally Britta’d her name.
He was a Comedy writer and stand up before he was an actor. I think that helps.
I like Community and hope it is renewed despite its low ratings (and having the formulaic Whitney survive in its place would be doubly cruel).
However, I think the show has gotten so meta-clever that it’s difficult to pick up any new viewers–there’s just no easy-entry point. I’ll also say that NBC has botched the marketing of this show from day one. The promos constantly feature the mugging of the unfunny Ken Jeong or Joel McHale’s snarky eye-roll. Does any fan here think that’s an accurate representation of the show’s genius?
So IMO this is pretty much it for the ratings; NBC has made long-term commitments to small-but-devoted-fanbase shows before (witness Chuck), but Community in its current form is never going to take off like, say, a similarly-quirky Parks and Rec did.
*Community *reminds me of NBC’s late, lamented *Outsourced *in that, for me, the leads (Ben Rappaport and Joel McHale) are the weak links. It’s the great supporting casts and their chemistry that keeps me tuning in.
Parks and Rec’s ratings are just about as bad as Community’s which also makes me sad.