NBC announces Community return, cancels Welcome To The Family and Ironside

By Sean O'Neal  |  October 18, 2013 | 8:59pm
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As predicted by all who saw its recent ratings—or saw the first ad where both of the leads were like, “Hey, get a load of this guy and his weird, different culture”—Welcome To The Family has been pulled from the NBC lineup, with the network dumping the freshman comedy like a guy who hates his new Latino in-laws wishes his daughter would dump her husband, on the show no one was watching. And while its dismissal would seem to clear the way for a more immediate return for Community, NBC has instead set its fifth season premiere for Jan. 2—a date that, as far as we can tell, actually exists on the calendar and not inside you, so that’s something.

Back-to-back new episodes of Parks And Recreation will fill out the rest of the 8 to 9 p.m. hour beginning Nov. 14, but—as it wouldn’t be NBC without sort-of-good news being accompanied by irritating news—in the meantime, that slot will be filled with The Voice on Oct. 24 and Nov. 7, and a Saturday Night Live Halloween special on Oct. 31. But after Community premieres with its own two back-to-back episodes in January, it will then settle into its regular 8 p.m. time slot followed by Parks, kicking off 2014 with what remains of NBC’s once-glorious Thursday night lineup.

Also getting dismissed today, despite equality and so forth, was Ironside, the Blair Underwood-starring remake of the Raymond Burr drama about a paralyzed detective, who solves crimes using his unique perspective of sitting. With Ironside being forced to hand in its badge and wheelchair, its spot will be filled by Dateline episodes, more SNL holiday specials, and even more holiday specials from the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Michael Bublé—all shows that may be staffed by people with able bodies, but they’ll never see what Ironside sees, down here.

 
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