NBC Not Running with “Parks and Recreation” in the Fall

Despite becoming one of the critical community’s favorite comedies on television this year, and despite scoring a buzzed-about casting move in securing Rob Lowe for some season three episodes, “Parks and Recreation” has been unable to excite viewers.

That failure to produce any sort of ratings gain presumably resulted in “Parks” getting pushed to midseason on NBC’s 2010-11 schedule. Though some reports are linking the hold-up to Amy Poehler’s pregnancy, Deadline.com dismisses that notion. In order to accommodate Poehler’s pregnancy, “Parks” was prematurely readying an additional six episodes for next season, so NBC’s decision to push the show back was evidently a late call not linked to production issues.

Contrary to expectations, NBC will not be supplementing Thursdays with a second night of comedies in 2010-2011. Ultimately, the decision meant that “Parks”–along with several of NBC’s comedy pilot pickups–will not see the air until later in the year.

At press time, NBC’s comedy lineup on Thursdays was believed to be as follows:

8PM – Community
8:30PM – 30 Rock
9PM – The Office
9:30PM – Outsourced (new series)
10PM – Love Bites (new series)

Joining “Parks” on the midseason docket are comedies “The Paul Reiser Show,” “Perfect Couples” and “Friends with Benefits.”