Ratings: NBC’s ‘Community,’ ‘Hannibal’ help their renewal odds; but by how much?

Whenever you see higher ratings for any show, it is easy to see this as a cause for major celebration. However, at the same time you also have to find a way to remember that sometimes, there are some other factors that can make this victory a little less exciting.

Let’s start here with the good news for a pair of on the bubble shows. With its much-hyped puppet episode, “Community” scored its highest 18-49 rating in a few weeks in a 1.2, and also rose in total viewers. This is great news and it does put the show ahead of the woeful Thursday-night performance of “Go On” (which shed a ton of its “The Office” lead-in en route to a 1.1), but you also have to remember that “The Big Bang Theory” was a rerun, and save for “American Idol” the only other new show on network TV was “Wife Swap.” We can’t imagine the Greendale 7 sharing much of an audience with this show.

Meanwhile, “Hannibal” became only the second drama series this year after “The Following” to boost its audience, as it rose up to a 1.7. This was enough to win the 10:00 p.m. hour, but it was up against “Elementary” and “Scandal” repeats. If these shows were both new, “Hannibal” would have likely been #3; but even with this being, it’s such a rarity for a new show to gain viewers on a major network that this is a victory, and we have to say that this show has a chance to be the new “Scandal,” pick up viewers over the summer, and come back for season 2 even stronger than before.

Do you think “Community,” “Hannibal,” both of them, or neither of them will be back next season? If you missed our review of Thursday night’s “Community,” you can do so over here.

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