But what does the NBC renewal news MEAN?
I have this ongoing fascination with NBC’s terribleness… their shows are good, but have you followed the ratings? It’s no surprise that they tried to make Fear Factor happen again, because it’s mostly a disaster over there. It was entirely possible that they could throw the whole Thursday schedule in the garbage and start over. There’s no true anchor and they’re relying on young people. I have no idea what their true numbers are, accounting for all legal ways to view the shows.
Anyway, because you never asked for them, here are my thoughts…
Whitney - Gets a renewal because they’ve invested a ton of advertising in Cummings and there’s still a possibility that it grows. Community/P&R were more likely to get the boot because they’ve already gotten at least three seasons. I don’t want to hear any whining about Whitney, NBC gave us very good shows and they could have cleaned house.
30 Rock - 13 episodes to tie things up and go out gracefully.
Community - It may have been a toss-up between Parks and Rec and Community about which would get a 13 episode order. Both are still at risk, tough to say though because I haven’t been able to find a ratings system that accounts for standard TV viewing along with streaming and downloads. BTW, it’s headed to Fridays and Dan Harmon’s contract ends this year. They’re working on it but he could be back in a supervisory role. But putting it on Friday is a bad sign.
The Office - There is no reason for this show to continue existing and I hate it. Oh fine it’s because the show still grabs viewers so it’s going to ride out until all the writers disappear to do something better.
Parks and Recreation - I dunno, maybe everyone’s buying Ron Swanson tshirts? NBC’s done a very good job with merchandising here. I’m a bit surprised that it got a full season order, especially after it looked like they could give the show a clean ending.
By the way, I haven’t seen anyone on my dashboard mention Mindy Kaling’s show getting picked up by Fox and that sucks. I’m very grumpy about this because people here complain about shitty TV shows too much and don’t recognize when good people succeed nearly enough. I mean geez, it felt like we had hate-recaps of Whitney before it even started airing.
