The "Community" header wants to shame you into watching.  Let it. (photo: NBC.com)

The Comedy Examiner's here with your Friday roundup of TV ratings.  Friday's the day we find out how some of our favorite comedies-- all on NBC: "The Office", "Community", "Parks and Rec", and "30 Rock"-- are doing, which is of major concern to some comedy fans that have been watching these numbers in the hopes that NBC isn't gonna give any of these shows the axe.  We also cover "The Jay Leno Show", for those that are interested in seeing the dead horse being beaten mercilessly, week after week.  So, how'd everyone do this time out?  The Comedy Examiner's got details.  Read on for more, my gentle Examiner readers...

This week's numbers aren't anything to get excited about, as they're neither way up or down from where all these series were last week.  We're hoping that, somehow, NBC figures out a way to pull some of these shows-- "Community", "Parks and Rec"-- out of the funk that they've been in over the past month or so, because we don't wanna see those shows go away come season's end.  Let's see how they did and get right into the "Ratings Autopsy".  From the website TV By The Numbers, here's your Thursday ratings:

Let's go through it all show by show, shall we?

• "Community" is just not faring too well.  With a 1.9 share (down from last week) and 4.9 million viewers, the only other thing that it beat in its time slot was a repeat of "The Vampire Diaries".  The critical response to "Community" (including from the Comedy Examiner) has been stellar so far, and this just may be a case of a TV show that critics love and no one watches.  See also: "Arrested Development", "30 Rock" (though "30 Rock" was up this week).  People, have we learned nothing?  Every time one of these critcs' darling shows gets the axe, we lament its passing and wish we'd been onboard from the beginning.  I tell you: "Community" is an awesome show.  For the love of all that is holy, start watching it.  Do you really want NBC to replace this with something closer to "According to Jim"?
• Meanwhile, "The Office" (which was a helluva lot better last night than it was last week; look for our review later today) had 8.5 million viewers and a 4.2 share, which was second place for its time slot (behind...a repeat of "Doctors in Heat"?).  As we tell you every week: "The Office" isn't going anywhere.  Even if the show plummetted to 5 million or 4 million viewers per week, NBC loves the show and so does a huge chunk of America-- even if they aren't always watching-- so we feel that the series is safe.  We'd like to see its writing improve back to the old standard, but we're not worried about it not being on the schedule next year.
• As for "Parks and Recreation", the show did a 2.1 share and had less viewers than "Community".  Ouch.  Once again, the NBC show lost to "FlashForward", which is gaining both viewers and a critical backlash at the moment (don't believe me?  Look around).  The only shows "Parks and Rec" topped was a repeat of "The Vampire Diaries".  As much as it pains us to say it-- as we've seen every episode of "Parks and Rec", watch it with fanaticism, love its script, love seeing Aziz Ansari getting some exposure, and even have started to dig Amy Poehler in the lead role-- it earns our bet for "Show most likely to get canned at the end of the season", because it already had its chance to earn a foundation with a 6 episode "mini-season" last season.  Wow, that was alot of "seasons" in one sentence.  Here's hoping that this doesn't happen.
• Hey, "30 Rock" didn't do too bad this week: 6.7 million viewers on a 3.2 share, and second in its time slot.  The Comedy Examiner's Office DVR's "30 Rock" every week, and every week we say we're gonna watch it.  Then, we forget to.  We've got-- literally-- a dozen episodes of the show that we need to catch up on.  Last night's episode featured a performance by Will Arnett (one of our favorite comic actors), and it was heavily promoted by the network-- so why can't they do that with their other shows?  Just 'cause it hasn't won as many awards?-- and we're thinking that if "30 Rock" keeps up its pace, it'll do just fine this year.
• Which brings us to the redheaded stepchild of NBC's Thursday night: "The Jay Leno Show". "Leno" earned a 1.8 share with 5.3 million viewers, the lowest showing in its time slot. That means that, roughly, the show had about the same amount of viewers as "Community", but did awful against the alternative programming.  "Leno" has been on a downward slope throughout its maiden season, and this week it managed to lose to a show that wasn't even on network TV.  "The Jay Leno Show" has taken its whacks from critics, and now it seems like people are just going to start ignoring it.  Remember that it started with nearly 19 million viewers and has sunk this low.  That's gotta hurt.

That about does it for this week's "Comedy Ratings by The Numbers".  Our advice?  NBC needs to be promoting the ever loving hell out of these shows.  They've got a great product, but no one's been convinced of it.  Pulling off stunts like hour-long episodes and lame guest stars for the sake of guest starts isn't going to get anyone onboard the show, NBC: You need to put your writing out front as the reason to watch.  Just look at "Community": that show has some of the sharpest dialogue on TV, but no one knows it.  It's kind of the same story with "30 Rock".  Perhaps, now that NBC's under new leadership, they'll find a way to push these shows better. 

Stay tuned until next week, when we'll take another look at how all your favorite comedies are doing.  Sound off in the comments section below if you wanna express which shows you'd like to see stick around, which ones you'd like to see retired, and which ones you'd like to see brought back to the air (if there are any).  And, while you're here, make sure to head on over to this page to follow the Comedy Examiner on Twitter: you'll get updated every time the Comedy Examiner runs an article, editorial, funny video, or whatever other time-killing bit of news that he can come up with.  You can also hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get all the Comedy Examiner's articles delivered straight to your email, free of charge, as soon as they're published.  What more could ya want?  Sign up today!

Also, check out these other recent Comedy Examiner articles while you're checking this page out:

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"The Jay Leno Show" is sinking even farther in the ratings, what now?!"-- in which we take another gander at Jay's ratings and report the bad news to you, the gentle Examiner reader.