Serve up some fava beans and pour yourself a nice chianti, Hannibal fans, because the Bryan Fuller curse has been broken and our favorite cannibal is returning for a third season. While you’re celebrating Hannibal‘s survival, NBC has both good and bad news for you to devour. One new comedy has been renewed while two fan favorites and four freshman series have all be cancelled.
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The Jason Katims (Parenthood, Friday Night Lights) produced comedy About a Boy will also be returning next year for a second season. The show has markedly improved ratings in its Tuesdays-at-9 time slot, making the show the only comedy success story of NBC’s season. In fact, it’s the first new comedy on the network to get a second season in two years (since the short-lived renewals of Up All Night and Whitney).
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Considering the low ratings it’s great news that Hannibal is coming back for a third course. The show, dumped on Fridays, has been consistently low-rated and seemed to be poised to suffer the two-season curse of all Bryan Fuller’s quirky series. (Both Fuller’s Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies saw season 2 as their swan song.)
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But now Hannibal is boldly going where no Fuller show has gone before, namely into season 3. This is thanks in large part to a co-producing deal and international partners which makes producing Hannibal financially negligible and much more affordable than other dramas on the network.
CANCELLATIONS
Of course, with every silver lining there is a dark storm cloud. In this case, NBC has cancelled two fan favorite shows, pulling the plug on Revolution and Community. It also cut freshman comedy Growing Up Fisher and three new dramas. Revolution was strong out of the gate and had great producers (including J.J. Abrams) but then leaked ratings in season 2.
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Growing Up Fisher was paired with About a Boy and did OK in the ratings, but didn’t have the same clout or appeal as the latter. It joins Welcome to the Family, Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show on the cancellation pile, making About a Boy the network’s sole successful new comedy of the year. Alongside Parks and Recreation, it will be the network’s only returning comedy next season.
As for dramas, Sunday night mid-season shows Believe and Crisis are both cancelled after one season. Neither is much of a surprise, but NBC isn’t in need of dramas since fellow freshman shows The Blacklist and Chicago PD both succeeded, in addition to renewals for Hannibal, Grimm, Chicago Fire and Law and Order: SVU.
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The Community cancellation might be the hardest for fans to process, especially as close as the show was to fulfilling it’s #SixSeasonsandaMovie hashtag promise. After a disappointing season, ratings-wise and creatively, without Dan Harmon at the helm in season four, the showrunner returned to right the ship in season five.
Unfortunately it just wasn’t enough to push the Greendale gang into a triumphant sixth season. This is terrible news for Human Beings all over the planet, so you might need to be especially nice to the Community fan in your life today. This NBC decision, though not totally unexpected, is certainly not streets ahead.
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The fate of weepy critical favorite Parenthood is still up in the air, so prayer circle everyone. Until then, let’s just be thankful we’ll be invited to more Hannibal dinner parties and treasure the time we had at Greendale.
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What do you think of NBC’s decisions? Are you happy about Hannibal and About a Boy? Or just too crushed about Revolution and Community? Share in the comments!
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
