Community Returns to New Premiere Low

Despite strong reviews and the return of series creator Dan Harmon as showrunner, NBC’s Community returned to the lowest ratings yet for a season premiere.In fact, the back-to-back episodes that kicked off the series’ fifth season averaged 3.375 million viewers and the second episode–with just 3.01 million–scored lower ratings than the last two episodes of Arrow.That’s notable because the four biggest broadcast networks still rarely see primetime numbers drop below secondary networks like USA and The CW–and when they do, it’s usually because the show on the smaller network is doing exceptionally well. While Arrow has been strong this year, it hasn’t been remarkable in a way that you’d expect a much-hyped return like Community‘s to slip below.The episode scored a 1.3 in the demo, down from the 1.9 adults 18-49 rating last season’s premiere.Both last year’s premiere and this year’s were expected to have significant interest because of the change in direction for the series (last year, firing the volatile Harmon and replacing him with more plain and predictable showrunners–this year, going the other way). The lower rating may be a reflection of the audience members who were just curious tuning out or moving to DVR.