I can explain the low ratings. The show was always on at the same time as Big Bang Theory. BBT is probably the most popular show in the US right now. Look at its ratings, 15 million viewers each episode. I reckon if you look at any other shows that are on at the same time as BBT, they'll have poor ratings too.
I think that a different timeslot for community would do it a world of good and show us just how popular it actually is.
I don't think the problem is the time slot, its the people, lets call people who watch the big bang theory... idiots who have no sense of humour and like laughter sound tracks as clues as to when to find something funny, and people who watch Community, smart people who have a sense of humour.... moving Community to a new time slot won't mean there are more smart americans
Meh, I really would like to see if certain shows did really well with internet distribution. A itunes(but not apple) style delivery system where they say, have 13 episodes of community, every episode costs say 5p each, and if they get a certain amount of viewers averaged per ep then they'll do another season, etc, etc. I'm sure the internet downloading viewers would have easily been able to keep Firefly and could keep Community and the like going.
From the UK, I can't watch community(in any serious time frame) without, finding a way to watch it free.. i'd happily pay if given the option but US networks are still stuck in a pre-internet era of distribution. Ratings are pointless, people view tv in a range of different ways, some measurable easily, some not at all.
I mean how clear is it that Firefly was loved by millions upon millions of people, just never really got the chance to see it, and the network(fox? I can't remember) cancelled it when clearly there was huge demand for a crapload more episodes.
yeah, reality tv makes money and costs nothing, doesn't mean they can't make good tv, distribute it online and make EVEN MORE MONEY, lower profit maybe, but there are different markets. I don't and won't watch reality tv, millions, billions of people hate it, and I'll happily pay to watch good tv. Why don't these idiots adapt, make a variety of content and if the viewing figures on tv aren't great, make them available online.