Ever since NBC killed “Must See TV” on Thursday nights (RIP), the Peacock network has felt only spy/cop dramas (ex. Blacklist, State of Affairs, anything by Dick Wolf) and event programming (The Voice, football, musicals) can be successful. In other words, not comedies. Robert Greenblatt, NBC Entertainment chairman, fixes this problem for the seventh and last season of Parks and Recreation by airing back-to-back episodes on Tuesdays at 8 pm starting January 13. The schedule allows them to “‘eventize’ the final season to maximize the impact of these episodes, which really do take the show to a new level. The highly anticipated one-hour finale will air behind The Voice in order to lead the largest audience possible into what promises to be a very special hour of television.”
To actual Parks and Rec fans, this move feels like a seven-week burnoff of the last successful sitcom NBC had left. Community has a new season on Yahoo, Netflix picked up Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and have cancelled Mission Control, produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. The only new comedy of NBC of the past two seasons not canceled has been About A Boy. The midseason schedule of NBC will be drama-focused, with the mini-series The Slap (based on the Australian series), and new programs Allegiance, Odyssey, and Aquarius.
At least we will still have Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to co-host the Golden Globes on January 11, also on NBC.