Community Ratings Drop Even Lower
Start worrying. Last night's excellent episode of Community was watched by only 4.29 million viewers last night, a mere 90,000 more than tuned in for a repeat of Grey's Anatomy on ABC at 8 p.m. In the coveted 18-49 demographic, Community fell from a 1.9 rating to a 1.7; for reference, the tumbling Outsourced pulled in a 2.5 rating in that same demo. Yikes. [TV by the Numbers]
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Outsourced is not a fair comparison, as it has the Office as a lead in, and Community has nothing.
Community is a GREAT show up against a powerhouse in "Big Bang". What are it's ratings after factoring in On-Demand, Hulu, and Dvr viewings?
While quality has never stopped a network from canceling something with low ratings, "Parks & Rec" aside, does NBC really have anything else in the hopper to put on in a comedy slot? (Aren't they still low on spare shows in production & development thanks to the Silverman/Zucker/Leno@10 era?)
Because as archaic as they are, ratings still matter. The better question is what does NBC do here? They can't yank Community off the air without replacing it with something else -- and that would be Parks & Rec -- but Parks & Rec doesn't get good ratings either.
If I was running the network (and thankfully I'm not since I would just air 30 Rock episodes every night), I think I would shift Community to another night and pair it with a new comedy. The audience just isn't finding the show on Thursdays.
Parks and Rec started doing a lot better in the ratings at the end of the season so now its going to lose traction, still its a much better show than Community...
But NBC lacks the "Must-See" power of yore to build a new night of comedy right now. (It feels like eons ago that it had Tuesday night muscle with "Fraiser" and "Mad About You".) The only idea I can come up with is to bench Community and retool the marketing or timeslot, and twist Lorne Michel's arm to put a couple weeks of live SNL "Weekend Updates" in the 8pm slot to stop the bleeding.
Any truth to Dan Harmon's tweet: "So: everyone's ratings are shit this morning. Everyone's! It's Magnolia frogs, so we're fine."?
Great point. If they switched "Community" to 9:30 and moved "Outsourced" to 8, I think "Community" would thrive. It's a solid show.
How "Outsourced" is pulling those numbers is a true testament to "The Office"'s lead in.
"Community" deserves a MUCH better time slot on Thursdays. But is it too late now? It's not like a standard show that has no important back-story to follow.
It's kind of a quandary.
Re, Harmon's tweet: I guess I would say, "What else do you expect him to say?" The demo numbers are trending in the wrong direction. By next week, The Vampire Diaries might be ahead of Community.
NBC doesn't have a show to launch Community off of, and that's a problem, but I think it desperately needs to move from Thursday night. Your idea sounds best, in the scheme of things.
It would help if they actually promoted Community. You see other NBC comedy shows in magazines & in ads on tv, but hardly ever see Community. Its one of the funniest shows on TV & people do not know its on.