There's bad news and good news, which do you want first? We'll start with the good news: Community has a return date! The comedy will return for Season 5 on January 2. Better news is that's a Thursday, in other words, not a Friday or any other non-Thursday day. Of course, for Community to have a spot on Thursday's line-up, one comedy would have to step aside, and it looks like it's Welcome to the Family that's getting the axe. The comedy series has been pulled from the schedule, effective immediately, and Ironside has also been cancelled, though it looks like we'll see one more episode air next week before that happens.
NBC announced a number of scheduling changes and updates today. Here are the highlights (and lowlights):
Welcome to the Family is pulled from the schedule, which is unfortunate, as the single-camera comedy about two recent high school grads who are about to become parents, and their parents, was starting to grow on me. I really liked Mike O'Malley and Mary McCormack in particular. I wouldn't mind seeing those two teamed up again for a family comedy or drama.
As for Ironside, it looks like the series is going the way of The Event in being another drama starring Blair Underwood to underperform at NBC. The network says they have a string of original programming lined up to fill the Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. hour in November and December, including new episodes of Dateline crime stories, Saturday Night Live holiday-themed specials and holiday music specials starring Kelly Clarkson and Michael Buble. The list is included in the schedule below.
Community will premiere Thursday, January 2 with back-to-back episodes from 8-9 p.m., after which the series will settle into its 8:00 p.m. time-slot, which unfortunately puts it up against The Big Bang Theory again. But at least it's coming back and sooner than February or March.
Chicago Fire spin-off Chicago P.D. will premiere January 8.
Below is the schedule NBC shared, which includes the return date for The Sing-Off and the live telecast of The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer, both of which are slated for December.
Going forward, NBC Wednesday 10 p.m. timeslot:Oct. 30: “Law & Order: SVU” (encore of season premiere)Nov. 6: “Dateline” (original)Nov. 13: “Dateline” (original)Nov. 20: “Dateline” (original)Nov. 27: “SNL Thanksgiving”Dec. 4: “SNL Christmas” (9-11 p.m.)Dec. 11: Kelly Clarkson Christmas SpecialDec. 18: Michael Buble Christmas SpecialJan. 8, 2014: Premiere of “Chicago P.D.”Going forward, Thursday 8 p.m. timeslot:Oct. 24: “The Voice” (encore)Oct. 31: “SNL Halloween”Nov. 7: “The Voice” (live)Nov. 14: “Parks and Recreation” (back-to-back new episodes)Nov. 21: “Parks and Recreation” (back-to-back new episodes)Nov. 28: “Sunday Night Football” Thanksgiving gameDec. 5: “The Sound of Music Live” telecastDec. 12: “The Sing-Off”Dec. 19: “The Sing-Off”Jan. 2, 2014: Season premiere of “Community” (back-to-back episodes)Jan. 9: 100th episode of “Parks and Recreation” (8:30 p.m.)
