Twitter has been a teenager with raging hormones for the past 48 hours over “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” When Fox announced that they were canceling the cop comedy after it’s fifth season (which wraps up on May 20), fans -- some of them with influence -- went berserk.
Stomping their feet and shouting to the heavens, however, seems to have worked, as after multiple networks clamored over the possibility of taking it up themselves, NBC announced late last night that they’ve picked up the show and renewed it for a 13-episode sixth season. Quite the turnaround, and even though I’m the first to talk up Twitter, even I have to say this display of power behind 280 characters en masse is impressive.
"We're all thrilled that one of the smartest, funniest and best cast comedies in a long time will take its place in our comedy line-up," Chairman of NBC Entertainment Robert Greenblatt told CNN.
But what exactly happened here? The cancellation announcement for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” threw everyone for a loop -- its fan base is huge. Andy Samberg is a delight, as always; Captain Holt gets everyone talking. How did “Nine-Nine” come back from the dead, and why was it killed off to begin with?
Cancellations are an inherent part of television, and we expect shows that don’t do so hot to bite it. Sure, we may think a show is all that and a bag of chips, but if everyone else in the country doesn’t agree, we’ll have to understand. My personal cancellation vendettas lie with "Red Band Society" and "Grandfathered."
Since this show was universally loved for the most part, the dynamic between the networks and production companies comes into play. Fox retained the right to cancel “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” even though they weren’t the ones creating it -- Universal Television was, which is NBC-affiliated. Ultimately, even though they were certainly making money off of it, Fox probably wasn’t seeing the financial worth of continuing a television show it didn’t technically own. So, “Nine-Nine” met its (temporary) end.
The same thing happened to “The Mindy Project.” Also owned by NBC, Fox canceled it after its third season, but Hulu ended up streaming it for another three. Is Fox just a greedy troll?
For now, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is going back to NBC, where Samberg should feel right at home since it's where he got his start on “Saturday Night Live.” Excuse me while I go watch “I Threw it on the Ground” a few times over.