NBC THURSDAY NIGHT THING

[Steve B]

I'm glad I was wrong about this.

yeah, lat night was the first time I was like "I'm beginning to like her".

[Wolfe]

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/nbcs-30-rock-nears-final-season-renewal/

[Randy]

NBC is going to clean house, huh?  Comedy house, I mean.

[Amusing Pseudonym]

Huh...   I had the impression that Whitney was the only show NBC was happy with.

[ExpendablesFan]

Huh...   I had the impression that Whitney was the only show NBC was happy with.

Why?

[Amusing Pseudonym]

Didn't they use it to replace a couple other shows?  It seemed ubiquitous. 

[Steve Lilley]

That Deadline article used to say that COMMUNITY'S chances were 50-50. Now it says it's probably getting a "shortened order."

[ExpendablesFan]

Didn't they use it to replace a couple other shows?  It seemed ubiquitous.  

No. Its ratings were bad. It might have replaced the Handler show a few times, but that was a diaster.

[Amusing Pseudonym]

Up All Night, Free Agents and Whitney premiered at 8:00 & 8:30 on Wednesdays and 9:30 on Thursdays respectively.   Free Agents was canceled and NBC filled the time by having Whitney on twice a week.  Then first runs of Whitney and Up All Night switched place around the same time 30 Rock took Community's spot.   I guess I was under the impression that that was a promotion of sorts for Whitney -- anchoring a block and all.  Eh.

[JCEFalconi]

I rewatched a bunch of Parks yesterday and I was amazed again at how strong comedically this show is. If the show is risking cancellation they should just move all the characters they can to a shinier less brown-looking place.

[Wolfe]

It's depressing that the shambling corpse of THE OFFICE is the only Thursday night show that seems to be totally in the clear for a full new season, regardless of who's even going to be on it next year.

[Amusing Pseudonym]

I rewatched a bunch of Parks yesterday and I was amazed again at how strong comedically this show is. If the show is risking cancellation they should just move all the characters they can to a shinier less brown-looking place.

I'd never seen more than a minute or two of Parks & Rec before last month, when I finally watched 45 of the 46 episodes available on Netflix.   I could take or leave that mini first season, but the full second season was pretty good and everything post-Mark the City Planner (ZZZzzzzz...) has been great.  

Even beyond how consistently funny it is, I'm impressed by how charming and good natured it is.   Historically I tend to gravitate towards comedies where morally indefensible characters take the piss out of one another (Blackadder, for example), but midway through season 3 of Parks it occurred to me that these characters are all people I wouldn't mind spending time around in real life.  Even Jean-Ralphio would be tolerable in limited doses.

[Amusing Pseudonym]

It's depressing that the shambling corpse of THE OFFICE is the only Thursday night show that seems to be totally in the clear for a full new season, regardless of who's even going to be on it next year.

Here are some numbers I put together for comparison.  Just # of viewers, not audience share, and my reference was Wikipedia, so yadda yadda grain of salt.

2011-12 season to date

The Office, fall:  avg 5.97 mil viewers

Up All Night, fall (8:00 Wed): 5.25

The Office, spring: 4.88

Whitney, fall (9:30 Thu): 4.42

Whitney, spring (8:00 Wed): 4.24

Parks & Rec, fall:  3.89

Community, fall: 3.67

Parks & Rec, spring: 3.58

30 Rock, spring: 3.52

Up All Night, spring (9:30 Thu): 3.41

Community, spring: 3.30

 I threw out each show's highest and lowest scores before calculating their averages to allow for anomalies like Up All Night's first ep getting 11 million viewers because it premiered after the America's Got Talent finale.

[ExpendablesFan]

The only thing that matters is the 18-49 demo.

[Wolfe]

In direct contrast to the useless and terrible OFFICE finale, how perfect was the PARKS finale? Really hope we get at least 13 more episodes next year, and that every other new NBC comedy dies so we end up getting a full season.

I was a bit worried during the Andy/April stuff, though, because I thought for a minute that what they were driving at was her dawning realization that he was too dumb and unhelpful, and that them having problems would be their arc next year. I'm glad that wasn't the aim.