What Really Are Community’s Renewal Chances And Its Impact On The Future of TV?
After the largest online push for a show in history, Community returned to its awkward 8 PM timeslot on March 15th. Fans (myself included) have since been anxiously waiting for May when NBC will make its decisions regarding the show’s renewal or cancellation. Producer Neil Goldman remained optimistic at Paley Fest 2012 saying that the chances of renewal were about 70%. In a press release issued this week, NBC announced that the final three episodes of Community’s third season will all air on one night, May 17th.
While it was announced a couple weeks back that the Community season finale would be an hour long, the reason for the conclusion now being 90 minutes is so that it correlates with “Sweeps Week.” This is when NBC announces all of the renewals and cancellations–though we’ll actually already know by May 14th.
Since it’s return from hiatus, Community has had consistently fantastic episodes, from a Ken Burns documentary parody to the most recently a Law and Order parody in which one of the fan-favorite side characters of the show was killed off (at request of the actor). Dan Harmon (the genius series creator) has often joked about how the show is inaccessible for the average television viewer and teased that an episode which aired last week was quite possibly the least accessible episode they’d ever done. And yet the episode which took place almost entirely in Abed’s “Dreamatorium” (his playground for mental simulations) knocked it out of the park and became an instant favorite among critics and fans alike.
The ratings have been strong in the past few weeks, especially for NBC ratings, which are held to slightly lower standards than other networks and tend to perform relatively poorly. On it’s first three weeks back on the air, Community out-performed American Idol and all of the other NBC shows in the 18-35 demographic. Thanks to some great twitter giveaway contests, the show has been trending worldwide for the past six weeks in a row. The support is definitely there and the fans have been behind the show every step of the way.
“The fans, they’re everything that we always hoped and dreamed they would be. They’re the best. They are so resourceful and organized and creative.” Said Community star Gillian Jacobs in a recent interview on IGN about the hiatus. “It makes you want to keep fighting when you see how hard they’re fighting to keep the show on the air.”
The legacy that Community fans want the show to have is one of a show that struggled in the ratings, but it prevailed thanks to an outpouring of support. “Communies” are confident that their show won’t go the way of Arrested Development or Freaks and Geeks, two other cult favorite shows that were canceled prematurely. Arrested Development is actually coming back next year as well with ten all new episodes to debut simultaneously on Netflix so maybe this age of the the web and on demand allows shows not only to be rallied for but also resuscitated.
If all goes well, Community will get its #Sixseasonsandamovie. Joel McHale hinted at future seasons in a recent interview saying “There’s graduate school, post-graduate, teaching,” he hinted. “We could slow down time.” At the present normal running time though, NBC has announced no plans to reverse their decision regarding The Cape. I think we’re all okay with that one.
