WTF!

[author_by_night]

I really hope this isn't true. (ETA: Apparently the site is notorious for bullshit, and it's not true as far as we know. Sorry about that.)

The struggling Peacock network is taking a new direction with its primetime lineup, and that means cleaning house. Until this week, the once-dominant network had been suspiciously mum on its plans for next season. That all changed with a giant info dump from NBC execs which included the fates of veteran sitcoms “30 Rock,” “Community” and “Parks and Recreation.”

All three critical darlings will be given abbreviated “send off” seasons followed by immediate termination. Despite receiving generally favorable reviews, NBC’s long-running Thursday comedy lineup has never garnered stellar ratings. The limited order of 13 episodes for each show must have seen like a good compromise solution for the network that has seen itself slide from first to fourth place over the last decade.

I'd heard that the seasons would be abbreviated, but not canceled.

The thing is, P&R and Community are about the only comedies that don't annoy me. I want to love Happy Endings, but... it's one of those shows that can be sheer brilliance but often just falls flat for me. (Mostly I'm sick of Penny always moping about being single, although that's less the show's fault and more that I'd like one show where a single character is like, "damn straight I'm single, and because of it I can party like it's 1999, bitches!") New Girl... eh. I feel like it wants to be The Big Bang Theory  meets Sex and the City, and even though I have never seen those shows I can assure you it's neither of them. Modern Family... eh. Raising Hope... it was stupid, then it got funny, then it got stupid again. I liked The Office for a lot longer than a lot of people, but now even I've given up on the show. So if this is true, it looks like I won't be watching any comedies this fall.

But I hope the article's wrong about these shows being cancelled. I'll especially miss Parks and Recreation. At least Mad Men has Alison Brie, I can pretend she's Annie in an alternative timeline.

Comments

[dotty.livejournal.com]

(http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/wirehangers/?action=view&current=z5wn5.gif)

I will bet you one thousand billion dollars that it's true.

[tresjolie9.livejournal.com]

This, Comcast owns NBC, and probably wants to get rid of the network which you have for free, and is broadcast over the air. They are going to keep putting bad stuff on, shows which don't have a long shelf life, and sitcoms which don't have a cast, until they start to whine "our ratings are too low." Eventually they are going to get rid of the local affiliates all together!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

According to people on [info]community_tv, the site is basically a tabloid, so it could be true but probably isn't.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I'm also hoping it's not true. The fact that these shows do exist means that NBC has the capacity to create more unique and awesome comedy programming, but all of the new shows they've tried to put into that bloc over the past few years (Whitney, Outsourced, perfect Couples - Up All Night has a foot in both camps, but is ultimately not out-there enough to break through) have fallen so far short that it really worries me. NBC is never going to be able to fill that timeslot with high-rating sitcoms, they're competing with American Idol - they might as well just keep shows that do well critically and have cult followings.

I do like Modern Family, though, and New Girl is growing on me (though yeah, it is to great extent a genderflipped BBT).

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's probably a rumor. Whew! I think.

I really haven't heard of many non-reality TV shows that have huge followings, come to think of it. Maybe that's becoming the new thing? You're right that NBC really does have great creative shows... but sometimes I think they don't know what to do with them. Plus, Executives don't care how creative something is, they care about the ratings. I think they also like to try and appeal to "channel surfers", who probably, tbh, make up most of the average audience. If you channel surf while watching Community, you probably get very lost very quickly.

I do like Modern Family, though,

I think for some reason, it reminds me of some "dom coms" I used to like, but for most of my childhood/teen years that was mostly what I watched. So it feels like I'm watching a modern (heh) and more mature (in some cases) version of them. Maybe that's part of it?

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

According to Nielsen.com last year, NCIS (also a Thursday night competitor) is the third most watched show, after American Idol and The Voice (fourth if you count both American Idol shows separately); it's followed by a few other CBS crime shows. On Zap2It, more up to date, their "social tv rankings" (I think based on indexing social media source mentions), this past week some Oprah Network reality show is in top place, followed by AI, Voice, Family Guy, SNL, and Glee; for yesterday, Vampire Diaries, AI, Grey's, Tosh.0, Scandal (need to see that show), Punk'd, BBT, something on A&E, and Community. I just don't think you can compete against the big talent reality shows unless you put your sitcoms on another night and put up your own talent show against them (which they could do, since The Voice is so high ranking, but they probably worry that AI would just take away all the Voice watchers). Ratings are important to them, but given the quality of the other sitcoms they've been trying to put in the Thursday night lineup, their choice is between "few people watch it, but it wins awards and gets great reviews" and "few people watch it and all the critics hate it".

My mom has channel-surfed into Community, always in the least pickupable episodes, and been really confused, so yes, I agree.

It definitely does seem like a modernized version of domcoms! I think that's what they were doing on purpose, actually. I never liked the originals, maybe that's why I like it.