Ratings: NBC’s ‘Community’ hits series low despite strong episode

We’ve had a love / hate relationship with “Community” at times this season, so isn’t it in many ways ironic that the show ended up posting its lowest ratings of the series for what was actually its best episode of the post-Dan Harmon era by a pretty wide margin.

You can blame whatever you want for the drop of four tenths in the 18-49 demographic, whether it be college basketball on other networks, Daylight Savings Time, or heavy competition. It still doesn’t change the fact that  1.1 in the 18-49 demographic puts a dent in those dreams form last week that we really could see a fifth season happen. (After all, that’s really not that far away from a movie.)

While we could sit here and talk about “American Idol” drop to a 3.1, “Grey’s Anatomy” sliding to a 2.6 (which caused it to lose handily to “Person of Interest”), or “The Vampire Diaries” also getting a 1.1 after what was a pretty tough night, there is one topic we want to discuss. Given the recent Kickstarter success for the “Veronica Mars” movie project, does the end of “Community” here have to mean the end of “Community” at all? This unique fund-raising experience showed that there are opportunities out there for brilliant-but-canceled shows to get the endings that they so long deserve, and there certainly has to be a possibility here (especially with its whole “six seasons and a move” running gag) that we could see the show do the same exact thing. (We’re well aware that we are getting far ahead of ourselves here, but this is still something interesting to talk about.)

Do you think the success of the “Veronica Mars” Kickstarter could in some way change the way in which the future for “Community” and other low-rated TV shows are gauged? If you want to read our full review from Thursday night, you can do so over here.

Photo: NBC