Networks NBC and The CW have finally announced the shows up for renewals, and thanks to hardworking, supportive fans, ‘Community’ (2009) and ‘Nikita’ (2010) are getting new seasons. These two shows are unique among all the other shows receiving more episodes because both have been struggling with ratings and viewership, but have very devoted fanbases who fought to get them renewed.

‘Community’ is a comedy about a ragtag bunch of students at Greendale Community College who have formed a loving but dysfunctional family. The group consists of Jeff (Joel McHale), Annie (Alison Brie), Troy (Donald Glover), Abed (Danny Pudi), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Pierce (Chevy Chase). Other regular cast members are Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and Ben Chang (Ken Jeong).

‘Community’ is highly rated among critics, but its less-than-stellar ratings caused it to be put on hiatus in the 2011-2012 mid-season schedule. Many fans feared it would be the death of the show because hiatus tends to cause a drop in viewers as people move on or assume the show would go off the air for good.

Thus, they pulled together and made online petitions, sent emails and rallied around the show to get more support so that it would be able to return and finish its third season. All of the cast members worked hard in interviews to get publicity for the show and prove to NBC that people wanted the show to return.

Joel McHale, who hosts ‘The Soup,’ did an outstanding job of plugging ‘Community’ in to help out his fans and his co-workers. They’ve also gotten a surprise amount of support from geek god Nathan Fillion, who loves the show and even visited the set a couple of times recently to meet the cast. Furthermore, the cast regularly attends San Diego Comic Con to answer questions and conduct interviews about how they feel things are going with the show.

However, while ‘Community’ has more support than ‘Nikita’, there is one roadblock standing in the way of their fourth season. Chevy Chase and show creator Dan Harmon have recently entered into a dispute with one another. This greatly worries fans because it could mean that Chase won’t return for season four and his absence from the group would throw off the dynamic that has been established in the past three seasons. Chase has not given his official word yet, but many are concerned about his future decision.

‘Nikita’ is an action-centric show that takes its concept from the Luc Besson 1990 film ‘La Femme Nikita.’ Nikita (Maggie Q) was once a highly trained assassin who worked for a shady American government agency called Division, run by Percy (Xander Berkeley). They killed her fiancée Daniel and she went rogue, vowing to take them down and free all the recruits they were training to become assassins as well.

To do this, Nikita sent in Alexandra Udinov (Lyndsy Fonseca) to infiltrate Division and prompt Nikita on their actions. Nikita’s mentor and trainer Michael (Shane West) has been ordered by Percy to take Nikita down, but he is unable to because the two are in love with each other.

‘Nikita’ has a faithful fanbase, but its ratings plummeted due to what some fans know as the “Friday Night Death Slot.” This is when a network puts a show on Friday nights, anywhere between 6pm and 9pm, and automatically dooms it to low views because most people go out on Friday nights. This problem is especially noted for what helped cause the death of the beloved Joss Whedon show ‘Firefly’ (2002), which also got stuck in this awful time slot.

‘Nikita’ fans have worked hard to get the word out for the show, mostly in online petitions and voting tirelessly in different Internet contests to get their show and its actors noticed by the general public. Like ‘Community,’ the cast of ‘Nikita’ also regularly attends San Diego Comic Con, but they have upped the ante by going to New York Comic Con as well. This allows them a wider spread of potential fans and exposure for the show, which hopefully will be moved to a different day and time slot for their third season.

‘Community’ and ‘Nikita’ definitely have a long, hard road ahead of them, but the fans have done an outstanding job of standing by them in their time of need. These renewals prove that it is possible to save a show through the hard work of the actors, the crew, the network executives and the fans. We look forward to seeing these two shows return for their upcoming seasons and wish them the best of luck in the future endeavors.

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Greendale Community College’s most famous study group will have a new member beginning in 2013 (and it’s not Beetlejuice) as Comedy Central has reached a multi-year deal with Sony Picture Television to license the critically-acclaimed comedy series “Community,” it was announced today by David Bernath, Executive Vice President, Program Strategy & Multiplatform Programming/Dean of Students for Comedy Central and Sony Pictures Television. The all-comedy channel will launch the series with three seasons beginning in the fall of 2013.

“Within the chaos of the current media landscape we are fortunate that we live in a timeline where ‘Community’ comes to Comedy Central,” said Bernath. “Our staff is celebrating with a game of paintball in the offices today.” “Community is a perfect fit for the Comedy Central audience,” added John Weiser, president, US distribution for Sony Pictures Television.

Currently in its third season on NBC, “Community” stars Joel McHale as a fast-talking lawyer whose degree has been revoked and who now attends Greendale Community College sitting at the center of a study group comprised of a band of misfits who, adventure-by-adventure, learn more about themselves than their course work.

Also among the series stars who comprise the study group are comedy legend Chevy Chase as “Pierce,” a man whose life experience has brought him infinite wisdom; Gillian Jacobs as “Britta,” the 20-something dropout with something to prove; Yvette Nicole Brown as “Shirley,” a sassy middle-aged divorcee; Danny Pudi as “Abed,” a pop culture junkie; Alison Brie as “Annie,” a high-strung perfectionist; Donald Glover as “Troy,” a former high school football star trying to find his way; Jim Rash as “Dean Pelton,” the Dean of Greendale Community College; and Ken Jeong as Senor Chang.

“Community” is a Krasnoff Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap, Russo Brothers, Universal Media Studios production, in association with Sony Pictures Television. Russ Krasnoff, Dan Harmon, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Garrett Donovan, Neil Goldman and Gary Foster serve as executive producers.

Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing and distributing programming worldwide in every genre including series, telefilms, theatrical releases and family entertainment, and for every platform: broadcast and cable television, first-run and off-network syndication and digital distribution. Internationally, SPT produces 6,000+ hours of programming annually in over 70 countries.

SPT is a leader in local language productions, and sells SPE-owned formats around the world. SPT’s worldwide television networks portfolio is a key strategy in SPE’s long-range commitment to the global marketplace, with 119 channel feeds, which are available in 161 countries reaching more than 715 million households worldwide.

Additionally, SPT owns multiplatform premium video service, Crackle, 2waytraffic, Embassy Row, Sony Movie Channel, and is a part owner of cable channel GSN,  3D channel 3net, FEARnet, the premier horror/thriller website and VOD service, and national media sales company ITN Networks, Inc.

Available in 99 million homes nationwide, Comedy Central, the only all-comedy network, is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom.

For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Press Central, Comedy Central’s press web site at www.comedycentral.com/press and follow us on Twitter @ComedyCentralPR for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.

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DreamWorks Animation SKG, has announced that Ryan Reynolds will lead an all-star cast including Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena,Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson in the Company’s upcoming original film Turbo, which tells the story of an ordinary garden snail with dreams of racing greatness. Turbo is scheduled to come to the big screen on July 19, 2013.

“Ryan Reynolds’ infectious enthusiasm and humor will bring life to the lead role of Turbo and set the tone for this amazing roster of all-star voice talent,” said DreamWorks Animation Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke. “This high-octane journey will take audiences on the race of their lives and completely re-define the traditional notion of moving at a snail’s pace!”

David Soren (Merry Madagascar), a DreamWorks Animation veteran as a story artist, voice actor and director, is set to direct the film based on his own original concept. Soren is co-writing the script with Robert Siegel (The Wrestler) and Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After). Lisa Stewart (Monsters vs. Aliens, Almost Famous) is producing with Susan Rogers serving as co-producer.

Turbo is a snail who dreams of being the greatest racer in the world, just like his hero, 5-time Indianapolis500 champ, Guy Gagne. His obsession with speed and all things fast has made him an oddity and outsider in the slow and cautious snail community, and a constant embarrassment to his careful older brother, Chet.

Turbo desperately wishes he could escape the slow-paced life he’s living. As luck would have it, he gets that chance one fateful day after a freak accident when he suddenly finds himself vested with the power of incredible speed. Turbo embarks on an extraordinary journey to achieve the impossible: racing against the best that IndyCar has to offer. Turbo is the ultimate underdog who achieves the impossible by refusing to let his limitations get in the way of his dreams.

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NBC’s smash hit sitcom ‘Community’ has been announced to return from its hiatus on Thursday, March 15^th 2012 at 8:00pm. Creator Dan Harmon released the news via Twitter February 21^st to the celebration of many fans of the show. For those who are unfamiliar with it, ‘Community’ is a comedy about a collection of misfits at Greendale community college who have formed a study group and inadvertently become a dysfunctional little family.

The study group consists of the self-absorbed Jeff (Joel McHale), the continuously preachy liberal Britta (Gillian Jacobs), the television obsessed Abed (Danny Pudi), the former jock Troy (Donald Glover), the innocent straight-A student Annie (Alison Brie), steadfast Christian Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), and the perpetually offensive Pierce (Chevy Chase). The college is run by the effeminate and ever-meddling Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) who often charges the group with helping him with school activities against their will.

In season one, the group had been taking a Spanish class with the demented Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) and learning their dynamics. Jeff had been interested in Britta and claimed he was a Spanish tutor in order to get her to hang out with him so he could ask her out, but Britta invited Abed and Abed invited the other members of the group, much to Jeff’s frustration.

He tried to leave but his selfish instincts were pushed aside as he realized that they needed his help and he reluctantly became the leader of the study group. As the season progressed, they became closer and much more fond of each other and proceeded to the next Spanish course together.

In season two, it is revealed that Señor Chang lied on his application to the college and is not a certified Spanish teacher. Furthermore, he reveals that he has become obsessed with their study group and wants to join it, much to their horror. Relationships within the group begin to change over the course of the semester, such as Jeff and Britta’s romance fluctuating, Annie developing a crush on Jeff, and Pierce continually alienating himself from the group by being a sexist, racist jerk more and more often.

In the first half of season three, which will continue March 15^th, the group reluctantly accepts Pierce back into the fold, and starts taking a Biology class together. Jeff and Britta are now friends rather than lovers, Jeff tries his best to keep Annie at a distance despite their mutual attraction, Troy and Abed move in together as best buds, and Pierce is pretty much still Pierce.

The broke and homeless Señor Chang has become a security guard on campus, and continues to menace the group at every turn after being unable to join them. The Dean has to work with a lower budget for the college, and continues coercing the group into helping him with school activities.

‘Community’ is well known for its fast-paced humor, savvy pop culture examinations, and most of all for its spread of characters. Each member of the group has a distinct personality with plenty of quirks and problems that make their interactions comedic gold. Despite all the hijinks they get themselves into, it is easy to see them as one big family, and that is the selling point of the show.

Its hiatus united the fans, who launched an online petition to get the show back on the air, and the cast members themselves continue to support it. Joel McHale, who some know as the host of E’s ‘The Soup’, promoted the show during the hiatus. The show also received surprise support from geek god Nathan Fillion, via Twitter.

Hopefully, with this fierce nation of fans, ‘Community’ will be greenlit for season four.

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