The Shows Mostly Formerly Affiliated with NBC's Thursday Night Comedy Block Thread **SPOILERS**

[GoGo Yubari]

... yeah that's amazing. If that holds up, holy shit.

I'm assuming it only beat Idol in the key 18-34 male demo, but yeah. Wow.

EDIT: Of course, the question is "what's the rating going to be when Big Bang Theory comes back?" But still, that just might lock season four down.

[caucasianheat]

I might be misunderstanding or looking at different data. The 2.2 was for viewers 18-49, total viewers was 4.89 million. American Idol did a 4.5 in 18-49 and had 15.5 million total viewers. The rating for Community was way up from pre-hiatus, but they did not beat American Idol from what I can tell.

They did pull the highest viewership for the NBC comedy block, though, which is something of a good sign for the show.

[apsham]

Britta is moving into areas where I don't think I could ever enjoy her being anywhere near the scene.

[GoGo Yubari]

Tooooooooooooooootally disagree. She was fantastic last night.

[jrhodes]

"Pick a number dick!" was my favourite line of the night.

[Gazz]

Catherine Tate is in the Office?

Horrible.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Britta is moving into areas where I don't think I could ever enjoy her being anywhere near the scene.

"Hi, I'm Britta, and I'm a straw woman! That's right, a straw woman! Bet you didn't know we could do that too, huh? Bet you thought only men could have flip-flopping characterization and chronic ignorance as the plot demands! Me so strawy!"

[Josh]

Britta is moving into areas where I don't think I could ever enjoy her being anywhere near the scene.

You are wrong and horrible and also the worst.

Two reports on last night's Community ratings.

[caucasianheat]

Two reports on last night's Community ratings.

Ah, the American Idol thing makes sense now. Community topped them in Adults 18-34 and Males 18-34 (second one less surprising, but still pretty cool).

[Mofoticon]

Community's ratings are very, very encouraging, but it was without BBT, which will destroy Community again when it comes back. But this just shows Community has a big fan base in the key demographic and should be renewed. Every comedy on TV would lose to BBT at 8 on Thursdays.

[AnnIQ Edison]

Community was fun. I think it felt a little underwhelming due to the build up that surrounded it returning. It was nice to see Jim Rash added to the opener.

[GoGo Yubari]

They added him at the start of the season.

[Maxx]

He's been there all season.

[TKz]

I really don't understand why they wouldn't put Community on at another time. At least just to see how the ratings go. Surely it's obvious that it could do better not against Big Bang Theory. Why let a show with so many fans get crushed when it could bring in some decent ratings at another time.

Fuck, what's wrong with Wednesday or Tuesday?

[EddieG]

If it really had SO MANY fans, wouldn't the ratings be better?

[DYSI]

I really don't understand why they wouldn't put Community on at another time. At least just to see how the ratings go. Surely it's obvious that it could do better not against Big Bang Theory. Why let a show with so many fans get crushed when it could bring in some decent ratings at another time.

Fuck, what's wrong with Wednesday or Tuesday?

And move a great show like Whitney out? That's blasphemy!

Honestly though, the fact that they're back should signify that NBC has some faith in them. I mean they could've cancelled them months ago.

[CobraKaiEnTai]

I've never understood having new shows at the 8:00pm or 9:00pm time slots in their first season. Community was on at 9:30pm for its first 3 weeks, then moved to 8:00pm after that. Its a testament to the superb quality of the show that it's maintained that time slot for the better part of 3 years, but I wonder if it would be doing even better ratings now if it was sandwiched between two established shows like 30 Rock and the Office during the first season, rather than leading off the night. So many successful shows over the years have benefited from the lead-in of a popular established show during the early part of their run, including the Big Bang Theory which was between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men when it debuted. Seinfeld was getting crushed in the ratings against Home Improvement when both were on Wednesday night, so they moved it to Thursday nights after Cheers and it became one of the most popular shows of all time. Frasier and Friends then initially had Seinfeld as lead-in during each of their first seasons and they gained popularity translating to Frasier anchoring the Tuesday night lineup while Friends held up the 8:00pm Thursday slot. Dare I say the Joey spin-off might've done better if it was on at 8:30 or 9:30 the first season after a more established show, rather than expecting it to lead off the night. Point being, very few new shows (at least sitcoms) do well when they're put in a position to fail against more established shows on opposing networks. The Cosby Show is one of the few exceptions that did well at 8:00pm Thursday nights and stayed there for its entire 8-season run.

Edited March 17, 2012 by jth1981

[Josh]

If it really had SO MANY fans, wouldn't the ratings be better?

Not when a lot of its fanbase seems to be okay with watching via torrents, Hulu, Netflix, DVD, DVR recording that they watch more than 24 hours later, or DVR recording with the commercials skipped (which I used to do, and apparently the fast-forwarding nullifies the ability to count toward DVR numbers.) That's why I was pushing people to watch live this week. John Hodgman (who will guest star later in the season) actually researched the matter and presented the best options to fans prior to this week's airing. Apparently, the ideal viewing methods were either a) watch live or b) watch via DVR within 24 hours of the original airing, not skipping commercials.

The whole thing brought more attention to the fact that networks need to re-evaluate how they tabulate viewership and the resulting revenue, given that more and more people are watching a lot of TV shows via methods other than on TV during the live broadcast. Until that happens, fans who want shows to stick around need to be made aware of how to make their support count and increase viewership in ways that networks will easily notice. And they need to not use torrents at all (I know, I know.)

That aside, Community does have a sizable audience (scattered in viewing methods or not), but it likely is a niche audience - not one to be ignored, but hardly mainstream-monster-hit-sized. The AV Club recently had a piece on Community that addressed this topic among other things. (This article. It's lengthy and covers a lot of other ground, but skip to the second "Todd" section if you just want to see the three paragraphs to which I'm referring.) The author argued that niche audiences are increasingly becoming the norm with most television - or at least quality television. Yes, there are certain reality shows and a handful of comedies and dramas that still can be counted on to dominate their timeslot, but as options increase and pop culture tastes diverge, networks need to nurture a niche audience model for more of their shows.

[TKz]

I was totally just about to say that.

Saying that, I actually do watch via torrents. But then I live in England, so there's literally nothing I can do to help Community. Along with a lot of people, actually. I think if there's ever a service that lets people worldwide watch a show at the same time and actually keeps track of the numbers, we'd see a lot more shows like Community prosper. It's a shame this isn't the future.

[tenaciousg]

I really don't understand why they wouldn't put Community on at another time. At least just to see how the ratings go. Surely it's obvious that it could do better not against Big Bang Theory. Why let a show with so many fans get crushed when it could bring in some decent ratings at another time.

Fuck, what's wrong with Wednesday or Tuesday?

Thinking about it... Community might get crushed against BBT, but it's typically able to hold (what little of) the viewership it has. Would Community do better against that David Spade show on CBS? Of course it would. Would Community do better against iRob!? Of course it would. However, as these last few months have shown, the 8 PM Thursday timeslot is lost to NBC. ANY show they put on at that time is going to lose, whether it's Community, 30 Rock, that Will Arnett/Christina Applegate show... even The Office would likely be taken down a peg.

Community has what those shows don't, and that's a dedicated fanbase that wants the show to stay on at all costs. #sixseasonsandamovie