Fan Theory: Why NBC Postponed ‘Community’

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While I was making my girlfriend have a Community marathon with me yesterday, I heard Joel McHale’s character mention a date that may give clues to the show’s end.

Doing my best to gear up for October 19, or February 7 for you non-Community fans, I made my girlfriend sit down and finish up season one. During the episode “English as a Second Language,” Annie is trying to convince the study group to sign up for Spanish 3 so they will all be together. Jeff mentions that he can only take classes that will help him with his degree, because he is on a “strict four year plan.” He also mentions that he has a dinner appointment for May 23, 2013 to celebrate becoming a lawyer again.

Being the nerd I am, I sat down with a calendar to try to figure all this out. May 23, 2013 is a Thursday. Specifically, 16 Thursdays after February 7th. After some searching online I found that NBC ordered 13 episodes of the fourth season, which leaves three weeks where Community won’t be new. Even though it didn’t matter much, I still tried to figure out when the breaks would be. I ruled out May because of May Sweeps, which is when my girlfriend pointed out March Madness. Google told me that the tournament starts March 19th and ends April 8th. Guess how many Thursdays are in that span of time? That’s right, three. Normally networks don’t air anything new against March Madness because they know they won’t be able to compete. That might not hold true for Community, given it’s probably on its last leg.

While the whole Community fanbase was upset when the show didn’t return on October 19, I do think it was a nice effort on NBC’s part to keep the show’s continuity. I’m still not happy about it, but it will be nice to hopefully see Jeff and the gang sit down for dinner to celebrate him becoming a lawyer again, on the same day he had his appointment.

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