Community, Whitney Fall Returns Delayed

Apparently, classes at Greendale this semester won’t be starting when we thought they would.

Community and Whitney will not premiere on Oct. 19 as previously scheduled, TVLine has learned. NBC is not saying when the comedies will return.

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“Given the success we’ve had for the past four weeks – including winning the first week of the season in [the] A18-49 [demographic] – we’ve decided to continue to concentrate our promotional strength on our new NBC shows that are scheduled Monday through Wednesday and have therefore decided to hold COMMUNITY and WHITNEY from their previously announced premieres of October 19th,” the network said in a statement.

“Without having to launch these comedies on Friday at this time, we can keep our promotion focused on earlier in the week — plus we will have both comedies in our back pocket if we need to make any schedule changes on those nights. When we have a better idea of viewing patterns in the next few weeks,  we will announce new season premieres of Whitney and Community.”

The fact that the network is considering shifting the shows to another night could be very good news, given Friday evening’s traditionally depressed viewership levels.

In the interim, Grimm repeats will air Fridays at 8/7c.

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If Animal Practice (at 8) and Guys With Kids (at 8:30) continue to underperform on Wednesdays, perhaps NBC will consider replacing them with the returning sitcoms?

Community’s upcoming season will be its fourth; Whitney is set to return for Season 2.