I want to report on the NBC upfronts since my two favorite non-cable TV shows, “Community” and “Parenthood,” air on the network. As we heard last week, “Community” was renewed thankfully after a lot of rallying by fans and an upswing in ratings following the show’s return. “Community” got picked up for a shorter, 13 episode fourth season. (Incidentally, Comedy Central recently bought the rights to air reruns beginning in late 2013.) Critic and fan favorite “30 Rock” also got a shorter upcoming season, which is rumored to be the show’s last. NBC head Robert Greenblatt stated that the fate of both shows is still up in the air. Greenblat said that “As they age, it’s obviously something you look at. We haven’t definitely said that with any of them yet.” So it sounds like the fate of “Community” and “30 Rock” is somewhat sealed, unless there’s a major uptick in viewers.
“Parenthood,” which has similarly struggled in ratings but remains one of the highest quality dramas on TV, got renewed for 15 more episodes. Like “Community,” I’ll savor every one. Also, “Community” got moved to Friday nights, when everyone goes out. This disappoints me, but at least it’s still on. Here’s NBC’s upcoming schedule.
Monday
8 p.m.: The Voice
10 p.m.: Revolution
Tuesday
8 p.m.: The Voice
9 p.m.: Go On
9:30 p.m.: The New Normal
10 p.m.: Parenthood
Wednesday
8 p.m.: Animal Practice
8:30 p.m.: Guys With Kids
9 p.m.: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10 p.m.: Chicago Fire
Thursday
8 p.m.: 30 Rock
8:30 p.m.: Up All Night
9 p.m.: The Office
9:30 p.m.: Parks and Recreation
10 p.m.: Rock Center with Brian Williams
Friday
8 p.m.: Whitney
8:30 p.m.: Community
9 p.m.: Grimm
10 p.m.: Dateline NBC
[From E! Online]
I’m reminded of Joel McHale’s comments in an interview with Diablo Cody last year, in which he complained about Community’s poor Thursday time slot. He said “In the Fall, it’s on against NFL football. In the Spring, it’s up against American Idol. Other than that we have no competition other than Big Bang Theory.” So maybe the Friday night slot is better for the show. I’m kind of resigned to the fact that this will be the last season, but at least there’s more coming. That’s something.
Shows that have been canceled by NBC include “Are You There, Chelsea?,” “Awake,” “Bent,” “Best Friends Forever,” “The Firm,” “Free Agents,” and “Harry’s Law.” Pajiba has a more complete list if you’re interested.
The new shows are bolded above, and here’s more on them. “Chicago Fire” features Lady Gaga’s ex and Vampire Diaries star Taylor Kinney and it looks like there’s plenty of male eye candy. Kinney is even shown shirtless in the promo.
Also, how are “Whitney” and “Grimm” still on the air? I haven’t bothered to watch Whitney, and have only heard terrible things about it. I’ve watched two episodes of Grimm, and it was just so depressing. I guess it’s like a crime show take on the fairy book genre, and I’m not a fan of crime shows.
Joel McHale is shown above at the E! upfronts. His suit is so goofy.
Update: DListed has a list of all the shows that have been canceled by the networks.
Photo credit: WENN.com and NBC
LOVE Grimm!!!!
Me too! I thought it’d be totally cheese-ball, but it’s not at all. The characters are all strong and all developing in a very interesting way and the story is woven very well so there’s always something going on, they’re not harping on the same thing all the time.
Whew glad I’m not alone! I love Grimm too, it’s such a guilty pleasure.
I love Grimm too! I’ve enjoyed this series since the start and I’m looking forward to season two and what’s in store. The last two episodes I thought were great and now I can watch them commercial free. Season two’s going to rock without having to deal with commercials on primetime. I rely on my auto hop feature to keep me more focused on my show than having to fast forward through the commercials. I can choose to skip my commercials and get back to the fun stuff or watch them. I was amazed at this feature, after my coworker at Dish showed me how it worked. Now I won’t wear out my remote or batteries like I did all the time.
I love Parenthood.
Me too. Glad it’s coming back.
I too love Parenthood! It’s such a heart wrenching show.
I wish they would cancel Community already. It’s not funny and has the most awful, annoying female characters of all time.
Britta gets on my last nerve!
Britta sucks.
Damn, killing The Finder irks me. Die in a fire, Fox! I’ll miss Annie Potts about GCB but that’s about the extend of my disagreement with the cancellations.
I loved The Finder! Most of the shows I watch on a regular basis were cancelled. *sigh*
ok I am a HUGE fan of The Office but good gravy that show needs a mercy killing. It should’ve ended when Steve Carrell left. I still DVR it and laugh MAYBE once an episode. maybe.
+ 1
I agree. I remember when it was as good as Seinfield.
NOTHING is as good as Seinfeld =)
Couldn’t agree more! I deleted it off of my DVR a couple months ago because I just couldn’t take it anymore.
The American version of the office just couldnt hold a candle to the original English version with Ricky Gervais. But funny enough I do like James Spader much more than I did Steve Carrel.
I quit watching Grimm and Community for similar reasons, can’t believe they’re both on the air.
I love me some Grimm and I am really glad that it will be back.I plan my Friday evenings after that show airs. The only downside is his relationship with Juliette, total waste of story. She just brings nothing to it.The show runners really need to reconsider that one.
Why don’t they count online viewership? Or is it possible? I ask because my tv died a few months ago so all the shows I watch are online.
I completely agree. My TV broke about 5 years ago and I never bothered to replace it because of online viewing and DVD’s.
aww man, i am really really into awake. i hope there’s some kind of resolution to it.
I liked The Finder and Awake was interesting but I couldn’t see where it was going. Also enjoyed A Gifted Man.
Am I the only one who actually enjoyed Ringer? Haha! I thought GCB was doing pretty well. I always got a good laugh from it. I still don’t see how Whitney didn’t get canceled. That show is horrible to watch. Missing was pretty good as well but I don’t see how it could have lasted more than a season. You can only chase your son around the world for so many episodes.
What about Up All Night? That show got funnier and funnier.
I love Community and am very happy it’s coming back for a fourth season, even if it’s abbreviated.
I can’t believe, still, that they cancelled Prime Suspect with barely a trial. It was a great show, yet it was scarcely advertised. I frequently wonder what’s going on at NBC with all the rash and seemingly bizarre decisions.
Agree that Prime Suspect was cancelled a little quickly. I thought it was a really well done show. Although I do wish the main character would’ve ditched that dumb fedora!
Some of these get cancelled, but Whitney stays?! Does anybody actually like that program? I tried to watch it a couple is times but found it to be painfully unfunny and straight up annoying.
I think she is the least funny out of the entire cast on that show.
Whitney is terrible as is beware the b in 3 d (or whatever that awful show is called. Im all for more shows with a female comedian lead but these 2 shows are terrible.
Oh my goodness, I love that show! I can feel my brain liquefying and sliding out my ears, but I love it.
That show is an unfunny abomination.
THIS show and Chelsea Handler’s shows are tied for the worst shows this year. Weird because Whitney is pretty funny IRL. But the show is astoundingly unfunny.
As a native Portlander, I love Grimm and seeing my city every week. Whitney is hysterical but it’s different. For once, the female lead is the screw-up instead of the male lead. I kinda like that but I do think it’s an acquired taste. I’m so glad both survived the cut so far.
I think Whitney is hilarious, sorry folks. Never watched Community or the Office, not my cup of tea.
Grimm is awesome, especially Monroe! It’s my Friday night “relax and unwind” show. If you look at TV By the Numbers, they say that shows airing on Friday nights can get renewed with lower ratings than other nights.
Grimm is great.
Community is some of the best stuff on tv. Ever.
Brilliant writing and willing to do things that most other shows wouldn’t even dream of, let alone pull off.
It really is in a class of its own.
Totally agree. It’s crazy to see people hating on Community. It’s just so damn smart.
Oh, and I LOOOOOVE BRITTA. “i’m the worst!!!”
Layla-I’m the only one of my friends that can’t stand Community. I wanted to like it so bad because I like Joe McHale a lot and of course I love Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell!) and Donald Glover but I just can’t with this show. I have given it a good shot but the female characters are just awful, whiny, and annoying (IMO). Wish I could see the same thing as you and all my friends see in it but it just doesn’t resonate with me like say 30 Rock does…
Community, like Arrested Development is one of those shows you either get, or don’t get. And I don’t mean that in any kind of elitist, smarmy, smarty-pants type way. It’s definitely a specific (warped?) type of humour.
I’m kind of like that with 30 Rock. I don’t get ITS hype. I’ve watched it, it’s ok, mildly amusing etc etc…but besides that fact that it’s a nice big staring vehicle of an advertisement for the network itself (which I find extremely cloying), I don’t find it worthy of all the praise it gets. (Even thou I love Tina Fey!)
Each to their own. 🙂
So over Community and 30 Rock.
Love Community. One of the most brilliant, inventive shows on the air. Sucks it has the absolute worst timeslot…and I’m sure Fridays won’t be much better.
Thank God they renewed Parks and Rec!! I don’t know why more people aren’t watching it because it’s the funniest show on tv right now. It’s so much better than 30 Rock and The Office…those shows are way past their prime.
I totally agree! 30 Rock and The Office were amazing at one point but the storylines have kinda drifted off into different directions…overtop (30 Rock) or in limbo (The Office). Parks and Rec is really developing into an great balance of serious and funny. The season finale was awesome! It’s the smartest show on TV right now and I can’t get enough of Andy Dwyer. 🙂
Love Community & parenthood.
30 Rock is the worst show on tv. Tina Fey is NOT funny and cant act for the life of her. A little bit of Alec Baldwin goes a long way. His ahole schtick got old years ago.
Community I just don’t get. 30 Rock is brilliant. The Office has flatlined. I thought Spader would give it life. But he looks like a sloppy mess and brings nothing to the show. What happened? I loved him on Boston Legal.
About Community –
I can understand that.
It IS extremely meta and self referential – along with all the pop cultural ties/references and Dan Harmon’s skewed take on all of these – so it’s not necessarily something you can just pop into one night and completely enjoy as a stand alone episode.
Some episodes work better as stand alones than others. Whilst others, I can imagine if you don’t watch regularly, would make absolutely no sense or seem flat.
Take last week’s asylum sequence… at face value, fairly hilarious sure, but in the meta sense, knowing that these “asylum acts” were referencing actual separate events that have occurred in the past “Community” timelines (which were hilarious by themselves the first go round) makes for a much more complex “gag” than surface appearances.
No to mention, that they will let a simple “gag” unravel slowly over the course of a season. The “Beetlejuice” gag was just that. Hilarious… but slow unfolding. Haha.
It helps to watch from the beginning for sure! 🙂
I understand Community. It can be clever but I just don’t think most of it is funny. I guess when I watch TV I don’t want to try too hard to get the joke. I want it to be an escape, not a dissertation on itself.
Glad to hear about Community AND Grimm renewals.
Community is brilliant, original, has the best scripts in comedy ever IMO. Grimm is totally different but started to grow on me after a few episodes, also I love Monroe and his bromance with Nick.
Awake is an awesome show. I hate to hear it’s cancelled. 🙁
@ JustaGirl – I agree with you about “Awake.” It’s one of the best shows on TV. Too bad it’s cancelled. 🙁
I hope another network, smarter than NBC will pick it up and air it. 🙂
Yay for Parenthood! It’s really one of the best drama shows out there. I love me some Braverman’s!
I can’t believe that suckfest Two and a Half Men didn’t get cancelled. Ashton Kucher is a douche.
I love Community sooooo much. I’m glad to see some fellow fans! In the same way some people don’t “get it,” I don’t get how people don’t get it! It’s funny how that works!
I agree, The Office needs a mercy killing. They’re just going to tarnish their wonderful reputation by continuing with the mess that it is.
I cannot live without 30 Rock. That and Parks and Recreation are the funniest shows on TV. I watched Whitney a couple of times and thought it was just dumb. I thought it would have been cancelled long ago!
I don’t watch any reality TV, so hooray for scripted programs!!!
I love Community. A part of me hopes it does get cancelled in the hopes another network will pick it up. I love Southland and was happy when TNT renewed it when NBC cancelled it.
I don’t know why Harry’s Law is cancelled. It’s one of the few successful series that isn’t a reality show for NBC. It makes me madder considering lower rated shows are sticking around
Very upset about Ringer being cancelled. I’ve just started watching the finale (so don’t tell me) but I happen to LIKE Ringer and Terra Nova and even, yes, The Secret Circle.
Now I’ll get no resolution to any of those shows, and that SUCKS.
Community! # 6 seasons and a movie!!