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Just What You've Always Wanted

NBC Totally Brittas Its Schedule, Moving Community to Fridays With Whitney

by Jamie Frevele | 11:15 am, May 14th, 2012


Well, this is a strange development. NBC has announced its schedule for the 2012-2013 season, and as we learned last week, Community has been renewed (along with Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock, which will likely end its run in 2013), albeit with a shorter season. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing.) What was also renewed, and what also has people seriously scratching their heads, was the widely reviled Whitney. But what’s even curiouser is that NBC has announced that they’ll not only be moving Community to Fridays, but pairing it with Whitney.

I think it’s fair to say that NBC might be trying to slowly murder Community, don’t you think?

This is a pretty mean move by NBC, if you ask me. We all know that Fridays are not what they were in the ’90s, when missing ABC‘s “TGIF” lineup of family-friendly sitcoms was considered a mortal sin. Now, Friday is where shows go to die. Basically, NBC just made Iron Man (Community, to air at 8:30 PM) strap himself to a nuke (Whitney, to air at 8:00 PM) expecting both to just explode into oblivion and never be heard from again. Hopefully, Iron Man will break away and survive while the other follows through with said explosion.

If NBC was so worried about Community‘s ratings, then why would they move it to an even less ratings-friendly night with a widely hated show? Because they’re not worried about its ratings. They don’t care anymore. They don’t want it to exist, but they don’t want to be the assholes who canceled a fan favorite prematurely.

UNLESS — this was a way to end the David and Goliath competition between Community and The Big Bang Theory on CBS, which has been regularly kicking the former’s ass in the ratings. Maybe taking away that kind of element would allow more attention to be paid to Community as a show instead of a competitor, and it could last on NBC beyond this abbreviated fourth season, which may have just barely been granted by the network.

First impression: This seems like it sucks. But maybe there is a silver lining to this in the end.

(via Warming Glow)

Previously in Community

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  • http://twitter.com/lolatron @lolatron

    I never understood why BBT was moved to Thursdays anyway to compete with a show that was hardly in its weight class ratings-wise :( I always watch Community live and watch BBT online Fridays as a result! 

  • Sabrina Glozeris

    Does air date and time matter as much any more with Tivo and DVRs? Really the only thing I didn’t like about that line up is my DVR can only do two shows at a time.

  • Anonymous

    It definitely does sound like NBC is trying to get rid of Community. 

    I’d imagine the perfect show in their eyes is one that’s not so bad that people turn it off, but not so good that people actually care about it. Cos then you have to deal with fans when you inevitably try to screw it over.

  • Anonymous

    Also think of this.  Community leads into Grimm.  Grimm fans who might not be watching Community might pick it up now.  

  • http://twitter.com/feedtogoldfish Feedittomygoldfish

    Totally disagree. Putting it on Friday would actually be good for it – the standards for ratings on Thursdays are MUCH higher than Fridays. I could see it being the highest rated show in its time slot. Plus, we dedicated fans will follow that show wherever and whenever it goes anyway. 

  • Anonymous

    i think i read somewhere that the creators of community were shooting for a 4-season run from the very beginning.  im glad they got it. 

  • http://twitter.com/mmmarthur Aja

     Air date and time still very much matter in terms of ratings, which are the only thing networks care about. Even Tivo only counts towards ratings if you view the ep before 3 am the night it airs.

    That said, I think this is potentially a good thing for Community, because if fans who’ve stuck with it this long can commit to giving it *any* kind of Friday night presence, it will signal that the show’s fans are real and active in a way that the Thursday night ratings can’t.

  • John Wao

     Unfortunately the networks still go by the antiquated Nielsen ratings system. Which to the best of my knowledge doesn’t take into account DVRs and time shifting.

    I have over 50 shows programmed into my DVR and the only show I watch live as it’s aired is Game of Thrones, everything else I watch a day later or on the weekends and that includes Community.

  • http://bleacherreport.com/users/535519-nick-p nick price

    that NBC switched Community to Friday next fall…Remember TGIF??? lets bring it back!!

  • TKS

    Don’t get me wrong, I watch and moderately enjoy BBT, but how in the hell is it creaming Community?  Seriously?  There’s nothing really new about Big Bang Theory.  It follows the same predictable formula as all of Chuck Lorre’s other shows.  Community is special.  Different in it’s execution.  It’s probably the best ensemble show I’ve ever seen.

    If there was only one thing that remained of our culture, I would be totally okay if it was a Community box set.

  • http://www.facebook.com/angelica.brenner Angelica Brenner

    BBT may not have much over Community in inventiveness, but it trounces it in number of viewers. Moving Community to a slot where it doesn’t compete with BBT might help it win over BBT viewers who were interested in the concept but didn’t want to risk missing an episode of a show they already know they like.

    It’d be like, I don’t know . . . moving a cooking show about Thai cuisine so it doesn’t conflict with Rachel Ray. Rescheduling makes it easier for that overlap of viewers who had trouble choosing between the two.

  • Cado Deveran

    It’s a bloody stupid metric. I don’t even watch television anymore-either there is a streaming service available on the website or I’ll go where there is one. When there isn’t, it doesn’t make me watch things when they air, or subscribe to services like Tivo. I just don’t watch it. People who work in the entertainment industry, especially when they make decisions over what gets aired and what doesn’t, need to understand that their service is a luxury and anything they do which makes it harder for me to access the content I want in the ways I want to watch it will only hurt their bottom line.

    This is doubly true for shows aimed at Gen Y. BBT is not a very good show in my opinion. It has its moments but it feels like something a baby boomer wrote; they don’t get nerd culture. They understand the basic archetypes and stereotypes but then they use them in a way that’s completely alien to me and my experience. Community, on the other hand, gets it. It’s incredibly wacky and not at all true to real life in so many of its key segments but there’s something real underlying the fiction. BBT does not have that and that is one reason I never watch it.

    So I like Community and I occasionally watch Community but I only do so when I can find it on a streaming service, be it on NBC or elsewhere. I absolutely refuse to watch BBT, though that has more to do with quality than whether it’s available via streaming. 

    This, like piracy, is a service problem, and if they’re going to rely on Nielson ratings it’s only a matter of time before they die and someone with a new business model steps in. 

  • Anonymous

    Is THAT why Community fans keep picking on BBT fans? I thought it was weird. BBT isn’t any worse than any other show on television and it’s WAY better than Two and a Half Men. Why pick on it exclusively? Mystery solved!

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