NBC sent the internet into a frenzy on Monday when it announced that it will be changing its Thursday night comedy lineup. Critical favorite, but ratings disaster “Community” will be benched mid-season and replaced with new episodes of “30 Rock.” New sitcom “Whitney” will be moved to a different time, and “Up All Night” will be moved to Thursdays.
This is a tragic blow to creativity on television. “Community” is consistently the smartest and funniest show on television, and the comedy has received plenty of critical accolades to back that up.
The Wrap, among many articles, said that the comedy eventually “got too clever for its own good.” Showrunner Dan Harmon has mastered his circular eight-step plot, changing the direction of the show on a weekly basis and exploring complex subjects from quantum mechanics to alternate dimensions.
The outdated and inaccurate Nielsen ratings that determine audience size doesn’t take online viewers into account, which is a very common means for college students to watch shows.
By putting “Community” on hiatus, while keeping the more traditional “Whitney” on the air, NBC is making a sad statement about television in general. Creativity, originality and innovation, and any other synonyms are not welcome to air on TV.
Why does the broadcasting network expect its viewers to always look for the lowest common denominator when it comes to comedy? “Community” is almost never advertised, and when it is, the commercials do almost nothing to emphasize the show’s weirdness. Maybe the reason people are having trouble getting onboard with the show is because they are expecting something traditional. The people who are looking for something different are not being exposed to the advertisements, and the show suffers because of this.
“Whitney,” a cheap, bland and utterly unfunny traditional sitcom with a laugh track is what the network expects people to watch. NBC thinks that we need to be told when to laugh and what is funny. The network has no faith in the American audience’s ability to accept something new. The sad thing is, they may be right. Maybe “Community” is suffering because it is smart and quirky and defiantly different. If that’s the case, maybe originality on television is dead after all.
Sign a “Save Community” petition to show your disdain for its cancellation here.