Will Community Continue?

NBC's president, Robert Greenblatt, spoke at the Television Critics Association press tour today, and got a jump on the room full of Greendale-loving TV journalists in his opening statements.

"Community has not been cancelled. it will definitely be back this spring," Greenblatt stressed. He acknowledged that when the network's midseason schedule was released (which contained no mention of Community), "I failed to explicitly say it will be back. I want to dispel any notion that it's just quietly disappearing from the schedule." He added, "I know there are many fans of the show in this room and I want you to keep writing about it."

Community had suffered from notably low ratings, and Greenblatt was asked if, when it returned, he saw it still leading off a night, as it was on Thursdays. Greenblatt noted Community was in an "incredibly competitive timeslot" (where it faced huge hit The Big Bang Theory), saying, "We're really curious to see what something else will do there. I don't know if it makes sense to see if it can start off a night again."

Right now, Greenblatt couldn't give any specifics on what timeslot Community would air in when it returned, noting NBC had a "really tight schedule with comedies. It's really a matter of looking at what happens with the six comedies we've got and see where it makes sense." Of course, those six comedies include the Wednesday night programming of Whitney and Are You There, Chelsea? – the former of which will have to prove it can hold an audience without The Office as a lead-in, and the other brand new. Which is to say, if either of them falters, Community could take its place (NBC has one other midseason comedy also ready: Bent, with Amanda Peet).

Asked what it would take for Community – which still has 12 episodes left for Season 3 to air – to get renewed for Season 4, Greenblatt replied, "Those are really hard questions to answer at this point," saying they'd have to see, "The success of what pilots yield… What the schedule's needs are."

My feeling? Community is still in a precarious place, but don't count it out yet. NBC's overall struggles continue to give it more of a shot than it would normally have, and it's very possibly Sony (who produce the series) will sell a fourth season to the network at a highly discounted rate, to get enough episodes for syndication. Look at Chuck getting a fifth season this year (which seemed highly unlikely last spring) for a similar scenario. For now, let's just hope we get to see those 12 additional Season 3 episodes soon.

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