NBC's 'Community' Returns March 15
Fans of Greendale had reason to rejoice this Tuesday as show creator Dan Harmon revealed that NBC would be bringing back "Community' on March 15.
Harmon took to Twitter to announce, "What you call 8:00, we call home. 'Community' returns to Thursday nights on March 15."
The comedy, which follows a group of students at the fictional Greendale Community College, premiered in Sept. 2009 to mostly positive reviews. However, lower ratings in its second season forced the show to go on "extended hiatus" for NBC's mid-season schedule.
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After the announcement of the hiatus, fans of the show began an extended social media campaign to return "Community" to the air. Hashtags such as "#SaveCommunity," "#OccupyNBC," and "#SixSeasonsAndAMovie" all began trending in response to what many feared was a cancellation.
Supporters of the show arranged for several physical protests as well, including a flash mob outside of NBC headquarters on Dec. 22.
In response, NBC responded that they would definitely air the remaining episodes from the third season, but would not make a decision about the show's future until after the season was over.
On Jan. 6, NBC Entertainment Chairman Roger Greenblatt announced that the series would not be canceled, but there was no official date for the return until today.
This does not, however, mean that we will definitely see a fourth season of "Community." Greenblatt had initially stated that he thought "Community's" ratings had suffered partly because it was leading off NBC's comedy bloc and that he would prefer to place it in a different time slot.
However, after "30 Rock" took over at 8:00 p.m. and produced even worse ratings, Greenblatt may have reconsidered.
This scheduling change means that another NBC comedy, "Parks & Recreation," will be taking a five-week break once "Community" returns to the network. "Parks & Recreation" will then return until April 19, once "Up All Night" has finished its run. Since "Parks & Recreation" was originally scheduled to end its season earlier than the rest of NBC's shows, the new schedule will not cause any of the shows involved to miss episodes.
