What’s the deal?
For those unfamiliar, Community follows a ragtag group of misfits who form a bond at Greendale Community College. At its core, it’s a family-centered sitcom with strong character interaction. But there are so many freeze-frame moments, well-crafted parodies, smart subtext, strong continuity, and even jokes that unfold over years, that it’s automatically a show you have to see over and over again to get the full experience. Moreover, it’s made by people who love pop culture and understand TV. TV critics can’t get enough of Community because it deconstructs (and reconstructs) the frustrations and wonders of television as a whole. ”Will they/won’t they” relationships aren’t milked, character arcs aren’t forced, and things evolve naturally, but with just enough planning to keep it cohesive. And frankly, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say it utilizes “high concept” episodes better than any TV series ever has. It isn’t particularly innovative, but it’s the awareness of its lack of innovation that makes it work. It knows it’s nothing more than a TV show, but that’s no reason to not get attached to complex characters and stories with heart.
Of course, like many fans of past shows covered on KSiteTV might know, being critically-adored doesn’t mean ratings are a given. Community has been struggling, and when it was pulled from the spring schedule in the middle of season 3, it seemed like the beginning of the end.
However, fans rejoiced when finally given an official statement on season 3’s status this past Saturday at the Television Critics Association press tour: it isn’t cancelled, and it “will definitely be back this spring,” NBC President Robert Greenblatt said during the tour, as reported by Eric Goldman, Executive Editor for IGN TV. Of course, Twitter all but exploded as soon as the news hit, but there’s still is no official return date. A further crisis alert came from Greenblatt’s non-answer about season 4: “those are really hard questions to answer right now.” Unsurprisingly, a renewal is up in the air depending on what pilots come in next season.
So where are the viewers?
Like any “cult” show, Community fans have run wild with campaigns to get the show back: flash mobs, petitions, viral marketing posters, Twitter campaigns—everything under the sun you’d expect. Collegehumor even did a “Save Community” video featuring the entire cast.
Yet, Community seems to be in a different situation than numerous other “too good to last” shows—it’s not that no one is watching it, but that no one is watching it Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC. It marks a definite shift in this era of television, and the awkwardness of the transition is thanks in part to networks’ apprehension about changing their soon-to-be archaic ways.
“Our ratings jump when you see the TiVo numbers, but the problem is that our audience is very young, and nobody views television [live] anymore,” Joel McHale, who plays Jeff Winger, said during a panel at the SAG Foundation Actors Center in Los Angeles. ”They watch online. There is no way to monetize that yet, other than iTunes. And you can watch [Community] on Hulu.”
Community hasn’t had the best luck in its timeslot. It’s stuck between ratings-machine The Big Bang Theory, which gears itself towards the “nerd” generation but also captivated a general audience; and The Vampire Diaries which, while certainly not a ratings-grabber, is one of the few serialized dramas aimed at the same young audience Community has. Community by nature of its genre is not a show audiences are clamoring to revisit live week-to-week, as opposed to a serialized cliffhanger-driven show like The Vampire Diaries.
Greenblatt did mention moving Community to a different timeslot at the TCA, but the question is: would it help? Part of the problem is its targeted demographic: Community is a “stealth geek” show of sorts. In an era where what’s considered “nerdy” has become something found all over Hollywood to attract young viewers, Community utilizes the elements of fandom we obsess about without whoring them out to attract that demographic. But as a result, the network doesn’t know what to do with it traditionally. Chances are, if everyone who watches Community watched it live and had a Nielsen box, things would be fine. But that’s just not the case. Community’s fans, as McHale said, are “all over the internet,” but that’s not how networks make money.
There’s about a 98% chance a viewer can find any given TV show on the internet, legally or not. Streaming and downloading technology has evolved just as quickly as our internet access has (which, as you might notice while reading from your iPad, is quite a bit.) The trouble is, television hasn’t caught up with it—or, rather, the people in charge haven’t. We still use the out-of-date Nielsen ratings to track shows—a system that, while it worked when there was less channel and show selection, has a has had an ever-growing margin of error in the last decade which makes the results seem obsolete. DVR numbers only count within 24 hours, and streaming generally doesn’t count at all.
Granted, Greenblatt has made it obvious that he’s completely aware of what’s happening. At the TCA this year, according to Todd VanDerWerff, TV Editor for The AV Club, Greenblatt said, “More than anything, NBC is the network most affected by young people moving away from consuming TV traditionally. They know they have an audience. But that audience isn’t watching in ways they can make money off them.”
NBC’s fame in the last decade hasn’t come so much from huge ratings behemoths, but critically-acclaimed shows with small audiences like Chuck and 30 Rock. Even shows that had high popularity in their heyday, like Heroes and The Office, never made the network the same kind of money that CSI and American Idol make CBS and FOX.
For once, this may not simply be a case of corporate greed; they honestly can’t decide the best path to take. No matter what they do, if they make that leap away from tradition and into the digital age, it will be a massive investment, and there may not be any turning back. It’s a risk, and NBC has been on thin ice for a very, very long time.
At the same time, if the leap works, the network that does it first might come out on top.
What NBC can do
TV critic Ryan McGee noted, “I know where Community Season 4 SHOULD air: online via the Louis CK model.” McGee is referring to Louis C.K.’s comedy special from December, Live at the Beacon Theater, which itself was experiment: pay $5, get the download. In ten days, he broke $1 million. Louis not only made enough to cover the cost of his special and the distribution, but he also made enough to give $250,000 in bonuses to his employees and $280,000 to five charities. And that’s from one comedy special.
Currently, all episodes of Community to date are on Hulu Plus. But, could Community instead follow an online-sales model like Louis C.K.? A fan actually brought this to series creator Dan Harmon on his Twitter, to which Harmon responded, “Works. $5 per viewer per ep, 360K viewers would pay for a season.” While Harmon apparently wasn’t being completely serious, critics like the one in the previously linked article don’t see why it couldn’t work.
Instead of going through something like iTunes, NBC could directly sell each episode each week as if they were airing them. There could be “season passes” like Amazon and iTunes offer to get episodes as NBC releases them. It might cut back on DVD sales, but the hardcore fans would still buy those for the collection and extras.
Alternatively, why not “broadcast” the show online just like it’s done on TV? As in, release the episode on a certain night and have it available for free for a limited time, but with full commercial breaks, as if it were playing on TV normally, but without taking up the timeslot. The increase of ads on Hulu and YouTube have shown that people don’t mind tolerating online commercials if they get the high quality material.
And yes, it’s more complicated than just “showing the same commercials.” That’s not the idea; the fees for advertisers will be different between TV and online, sure. But that’s exactly what needs to be worked out. If TV is going to change, advertisers will too, and that’s something that would work for this experiment. Advertisers might realize how many viewers they can reach online, Nielsen ratings or not, and suddenly more of them are clamoring to fund the previously-failing NBC.
How Community could save NBC
Okay, that’s a huge overstatement. But think about it: NBC has a rare opportunity on their hands. They’ve got a gem that tons of people like but their system isn’t geared for, supported by a generation of people who are most adept at utilizing online media. NBC should be able to afford to experiment with it.
The best timeline: Community gets another season, and NBC comes out on top by revolutionizing how it handles TV (or at the very least, cult TV) and are the pioneers in some sort of pay-by-episode web series format which, in the end, could save their network. The darkest timeline: Community gets another season, but NBC doesn’t get much ad support and online sales fail, NBC loses money just like they’d lose money if the live ratings tanked, and we all go back to traditional television for the time being. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say fans would prefer that be the darkest timeline, as opposed to seeing the show unceremoniously axed after season 3.
NBC has been struggling to retain a large audience for years, and with its fall season continuing the trend, there’s no reason it should be afraid to take a risk. Try something new—explore the options for using Community as the next step in both television and web series.
There is still hope
Community does have quite a bit in its favor. ”The biggest thing keeping Community alive, as always, is that NBC can’t cancel EVERYthing. I suspect it gets year four for that reason,” said VanDerWerff . Given Whitney‘s lackluster performance, that’s a safe statement.
We got five years of Chuck on NBC because of its active fan campaigns (hey Subway, want to chip in for Community?) Sony is going to want to milk Community for syndication, so they might be willing to sell NBC the rights at next-to-nothing so they can get more episodes, like they did with ‘Til Death.
Only time will tell if NBC Brittas this and Community is relegated to Annie’s Boobs’ vent stash (or whatever reference you’d like to use.) Until then, fans can (and will) continue to fight for the show, so we can at least see our favorite students graduate from Greendale.
Derek B. Gayle is a Virginia native and has a BS in English from Randolph-Macon College. He’s an avid Power Rangers fanatic, and favorite current TV shows include Community, Supernatural and Chuck. You can reach him on Twitter @Durkinator27 or visit his blog at thebeardedawesome.wordpress.com.
