'Prime Suspect' Future Uncertain, 'Community' Will Be Back on NBC

NBC

"Community"

Community and Prime Suspect aren't canceled.

While the Joel McHale comedy and the Maria Bello drama series don't immediately fit in to NBC's midseason plans as they were announced Monday, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that neither series has been canceled.

NBC picked up six additional scripts for Prime Suspect in October and will continue to air the struggling series (a remake of the British franchise that starred Helen Mirren) through the remainder of the year before making a decision whether to order additional installments.

Prime Suspect thus far has consistently registered a last-place finish in its Thursday at 10 p.m. slot against CBS' The Mentalist and ABC's Private Practice. NBC's experiment in sampling Prime Suspect on different nights on its schedule has also not proven fruitful enough. To date, the reboot is averaging 4.97 million viewers and a 1.4 rating following the NBC comedies.

STORY: NBC Sets Midseason Schedule, Moves 'Whitney,' 'Up All Night,' More

Community, while standing as one of the network's struggling comedies despite its prime slot among its Thursday comedies, will return to the schedule at a date to be determined, sources said.

The comedy's most recent airing attracted 3.5 million viewers, just shy of its season low; it's averaging 3.69 million viewers to date and a 1.6 in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. The CW's supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries, at one point this season, drew a higher rating than Community on Oct. 27.

Meanwhile, the fourth-place network has yet to schedule a long list of midseason fare, including Bent, BFFs, Awake and Betty White's hidden-camera series Off the Rockers.