Apparently this kind of thing only happens when I've vowed to avoid the Internet for a few days. As you may have heard/read/seen, NBC released its spring schedule today, and there are some questionable choices that appear to have gone into it.
The Good: Whitney is finally being yanked from the Thursday lineup (after half a season spent hyping it above and beyond the other three shows), and transferred to the Wednesday night opening slot, where it will meet its true ratings fate. This made space for the charming Up All Night to mosey over to Thursday night, where it will trail The Office and close out the evening's comedy.
The Bad: I know many of us have been wondering where exactly 30 Rock would land when it came time for its mid-season premiere, and now that we have our answer, to say it's disappointing would be an understatement. Tina Fey and company will lead off the night on Thursdays beginning in January, with Parks and Recreation following in its current timeslot. What this means, unfortunately, is that quirky favorite Community has been left out in the cold. NBC's official line is that the show has been "benched" rather than cancelled, but it remains unclear what, exactly, that means for the Greendale gang.
Thoughts: I understand the need to make changes; after all, there just isn't room on Thursday night for six comedies (although if I were in the decision-making chair, I might have petitioned for a third hour of comedy that night rather than tacking on a new drama at 10/9c. I am absolutely excited to see 30 Rock back, but I didn't consider that it might cost me another one of my favorite shows. And while I am obviously concerned about the future of Community (will it come back in the summer? will we have to wait until fall to see the rest of season 3? are webisodes of some kind an option?), I take a little bit of issue with the lineup of the remaining shows as it stands. The goal here is ratings (which is the chief reason Community was the show to get the boot), and I don't know if these shows are in the order that will most benefit them. 30 Rock has never led the night before, and given that it's been missing all of fall, it might lack the momentum it needs to succeed there. I personally would have put Up All Night at the 8/7c spot, which is where it's been doing a consistent job on Wednesday nights. If NBC is going to move forward with 30 Rock as the starter, they are going to need to hype the crap out of it (I have yet to see any evidence that this is in the works at all), much in the way they failed to hype any Thursday show save for Whitney at the end of the summer. One good thing this arrangement has going for it is that it might give Parks and Recreation the ratings bump it needs, because so many people are fans of both that show and 30 Rock.
The Verdict: We'll have to wait till January to see how it all pans out, but in the meantime I'll be interested to see how the folks over at Community handle this bump in the road. They've now got 3, maybe 4 episodes before this "benching," during which they might just be able to do whatever the heck they want (and I hope they do).
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