Friday 9 May 2014

NBC cancel COMMUNITY, but is this truly the end for the geek-friendly sitcom?

Friday 9 May 2014

Moments after receiving news that NBC have renewed low-rated Hannibal, they announced they're cancelling low-rated sitcom Community. The comedy's mantra has been "six seasons and a movie", but it unfortunately fell short of that achievement. Still, given the poor ratings it was always a miracle it made it this far—especially in the wake of the atrocious fourth season, which inspired the bizarre decision to rehire creator Dan Harmon after firing him.

Oh well, Community at least ended with a good final season with Harmon back in charge, if not a last episode truly worthy of its placement.

But is this truly the end of the line? NBC don't actually make Community; Sony Pictures Television does. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that Sony will shop Community around to Netflix or Amazon Prime—two online services that like appealing to geeks. Netflix revived Fox's Arrested Development partly because their stats showed subscribers watched it in droves. Doesn't Community fall under the same umbrella?

Of course, the only service that currently streams Community is Hulu, which is part-owned by NBC. Could Sony debut a new "online exclusive" season there, helping build interest in the broadcast run? Or could Sony end the Hulu contract and throw Community Netflix's way?

And even if nothing happens immediately, the cast and crew seem like such a loyal group that maybe, just maybe, Community will come back one day... some how. We can hope, right?

(Who said Kickstarter?)

#sixseasonsandamovie