How Much Money Did Yahoo Lose From Community?

The sixth season of Community streamed on Yahoo, after five seasons of low ratings and almost-cancellation on NBC; today, Yahoo has said that they lost money by streaming Community and two other original shows (Sin City Saints and Other Space). In total, those three shows cost the company $41.699; however, that number refers to all three shows, not just Community. I don’t know about you all, but this is the first time I’ve even heard of the other two shows, so either I’m out of the loop about what’s cool — which is a strong possibility — or those two shows did significantly worse than Community in terms of ratings.

What were Community‘s ratings, exactly? This fan of Dan Harmon’s podcast writes that Harmon has stated that the view counts on Yahoo were higher than the ratings for the show on NBC, and that the deal had been profitable for Yahoo. Perhaps Harmon was misinformed, or perhaps views dropped off midway through the season — but lumping in Community with Yahoo’s other original programming seems odd, given that Community is quite a different beast. It’s more of a cult favorite than a smash hit, to be sure, but there was definitely a pre-existing audience, as opposed to an original show that would have to start over from scratch.

Did you watch Community on Yahoo? Are you relieved that Dan Harmon managed to get his six desired seasons and, now, can begin working on the long-dreamt Community feature film?

(via Polygon, image via Fanpop)

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