Report: NBC To Gut Their Thursday Night Comedy Lineup in 2014

In spite of last night's news that Community will return for an abbreviated fourth season next year, it appears as though that may be it for the cult hit. Vanity Fair reports that, along with fellow fan-favorite shows Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock, Community will be axed at the end of next season to make way for a dramatically different Thursday night lineup, including presumably whichever of their current batch of new shows make the grade, along with The Farm, the rumored Dwight-centric spinoff of The Office. Besides The Farm, which isn't yet on the schedule but which is much-discussed already, the network has already picked up six new comedies for next year, including projects from Glee's Ryan Murphy and Matthew Perry of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The network has upfronts next week, where Vanity Fair suggests it could announce the strategy, but that seems unlikely--in a pinch, it seems like NBC would want to be able to hold onto at least one of these shows and if these reports are already circulating, the "soft cancellation" idea wouldn't work as well. That said, the network has already done the "renewing for a final season" trick once--with Chuck, which has a lot in common with Community--and Fox, who just signed Mindy Kaling away from The Office for her own show, are doing it right now with Fringe.