NBC has placed the season premieres of Community and Whitney on an indefinite hold. 

The move, which was first reported by Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix, seems to open the door for Community to enter back into the schedule with a more opportune time slot than its originally scheduled Fridays at 8:30 p.m., starting on October 19.

NBC reportedly feels like it hasn’t had time to adequately market both Community and Whitney and their time change to Fridays, but Sepinwall speculates that NBC could be seeking to use Community to replace another struggling show (of which NBC has many) like Up All Night.

Either way, this could bode very well for Community and how NBC feels about the newly revamped Moses Port and David Guarascio-run version of the show. Now, with Animal Practice and Up All Night struggling and even the final season premiere of 30 Rock losing viewers from last year, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt might be fondly remembering how Community actually scored good ratings after returning from hiatus last year.

Even the mere fact that NBC is paying lip-service to trying to market Community means that the network understands that its web-savvy and dedicated fans care about how they treat the show – on and off the air. When Greenblatt described his decision to move Community this summer, he cited the fans’ dedication to the show as a reason. That seemed counter-intuitive at the time (as did firing the showrunner of that same show but that’s another issue entirely) and NBC may be attempting to right that now.

We won’t be seeing Community as soon as we would otherwise, but if the delay betters the chances for a season 5 then it may very well be worth it.

Now what to do about that October 26 Halloween episode?