Community, Whitney Premieres: Delayed by NBC

NBC has delayed the Community Season 4 premiere date - but the news might actually be positive for our favorite study group.

The network has not announced a rescheduled return for the beloved sitcom, implying in a statement that it may move from the grave yard of Friday nights and replace one of NBC's struggling new sitcoms, Animal Practice or Guys with Kids.

“Given the success we’ve had for the past four weeks –  including winning the first week of the season in A18-49 — we’ve decided to continue to concentrate our promotional strength on our new NBC shows that are scheduled Monday through Wednesday and have therefore decided to hold Community and Whitney from their previously announced premieres of October 19th," says the network. 

"Without having to launch these comedies on Friday at this time, we can keep our promotion focused on earlier in the week — plus we will have both comedies in our back pocket if we need to make any schedule changes on those nights. When we have a better idea of viewing patterns in the next few weeks, we will announce new season premieres of Whitney and Community.”

Oh, right: the return of Whitney has also been delayed.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.