Today, at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, was the first time NBC president Bob Greenblatt had faced a large group of TV journalists since Dan Harmon’s controversial removal from Community . And while it’s believed that Community’s studio, Sony, were the primary decision-makers when it came to removing Harmon, it’s also clear NBC went along with that decision. And so it was inevitable Greenblatt would be asked about the situation with the series today.

Greenblatt was asked about how the network views Community currently, having also moved it to Fridays and giving it a reduced thirteen-episode order. NBC have ordered a ton of new comedies for the fall and Greenblatt spoke about how the network (who are coming off years of infamously bad ratings) are trying to expand this audience, given the critically acclaimed but small audiences shows like Community, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock get, which are dwarfed by the audiences for CBS hits like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike and Molly and 2 Broke Girls.Said Greenblatt, “I think we’re in a transition with our comedy programming and trying to broaden the audience and broaden what the network does. Those Thursday comedies, which the critics love and we love, tend to be a bit more narrow than we would like as we go forward.” Greenblatt noted Community has always been a bubble show, but they decided to renew it and, “See what a fourth season will do for us.” He said the order was for thirteen episodes, “because we really wanted to get more comedies on the schedule. We sort of laid out the number of episodes we’d need of things in order to get more shows on.” However, he also said the initial thirteen episode order didn’t mean they might not decide to extend the season past that.

New Community Showrunners Promise “We Won’t Screw it Up”





Addressing the Dan Harmon situation, Greenblatt clearly wasn’t going to get into specifics about why that decision was made, saying, “Every so often, it’s time to make a change with the showrunner. You sort of evaluate the creative and how the show is run and how the writing staff works. Sometimes you want to freshen the show. We just decided it was time to do that on Community. No disrespect to anyone.” Greenblatt also stressed, “I think Community fans will get the same show they loved since the beginning.”

As for whether Community could get a Season 5 or whether the network sees Season 4 as the end, Greenblatt said, “I would love nothing more for Community to have a following on Friday and be able to continue.”Later, Greenblatt spoke a bit more about the difficulties they’ve had with their comedies, saying, “These shows, especially the Thursday night shows, are just great shows. They’re award winning and incredibly sophisticated and clever and we couldn’t be prouder of them.” However, addressing the network’s overall ratings decline, he said, “We just can’t get the biggest audience for those shows. They do tend to be a little more narrow and a little more sophisticated than you want for a real broad audience.”He said the intent with new NBC comedies, including Go On, Animal Practice and The New Normal was to have series that are “Also clever and also smart and you critics like them but can also broaden the size of the audience.”