Is Community Canceled...Again? Joel McHale and Ken Jeong Weigh In

No seventh season at Yahoo for this fan-favorite series

By Chris Harnick Aug 04, 2015 11:30 PMTags
Community, Season 6Yahoo

Community is dead. Again. Or is it? Hey, at least you made it to the six seasons part of #sixseasonsandamovie. Series star Joel McHale shared the news in an interview with Metro Weekly.

"No," McHale said when asked if another season was coming to Yahoo. "They wanted to. But all of our contracts were up after six years. All the actors on the show, almost without exception—their stock has risen significantly and it's out of the pay rate that is affordable to make the show. So you're not going to be able to get Alison Brie or Gillian Jacobs at a normal television salary anymore. There is just not enough money to be able to pay for the show."

But Yahoo isn't quite ready to officially say goodbye yet.

"We've seen tremendous value in our partnership with Sony and are continuing to discuss future opportunities for Community," a Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement to E! News.

Request for comment from Sony, Community's producer, was not immediately returned.

Community ran for five seasons on NBC before it was ultimately axed. Yahoo swooped in and renewed the comedy from Dan Harmon. In addition to E!'s own McHale, Community starred Brie, Jacobs, Ken Jeong, Danny Pudi, Jim Rash and previously Donald Glover, Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown. Paget Brewster, Keith David, Jonathan Banks and John Oliver were also part of the ensemble at various times.

When the Yahoo season wrapped, Harmon said he was taking a break, but that a movie was something Yahoo wanted to do.

"I told Yahoo, ‘I can't think about writing a movie until I miss Community,'" Harmon told EW. "They wanted to turn around and do a movie immediately, and Yahoo can get it done. They're like the NSA."

But as McHale told Metro Weekly, everybody's scattered to the wind. McHale is doing The X-Files in addition to hosting The Soup, Jacobs has a new Netflix series, Jeong is starring in ABC's Dr. Ken, Glover has a deal with FX, Brown is on CBS's The Odd Couple, Brie is making movies, etc.

The comedy was perpetually on the bubble and fans rallied around #sixseasonsandamovie. Half of that has come true, there's still time to complete it!

Update: Don't lose hope yet, Community fans! Joel McHale hopped on Twitter on Tuesday to clarify/further confuse the news of the show's potential end, saying "Easy sugar-bear, Community is not canceled. #QuestionMarkSeasonsAndaMovie" 

Moments later, Ken Jeong fielded questions during promotion for his new ABC show Dr. Ken about the future of the Yahoo/formerly NBC show. 

"As always with that show, I'm completely in the dark," Jeong said. "Thankfully so. I would love to do a movie. I just think doing a movie would be amazing. Community, those guys, Community made me the actor I am today…I've learned so much on that. Dan, Joel, Jim, all those guys, I'm always down for anything Community-related, but fingers crossed for a movie at this point."

So there's no news at all then? Great! We'll just continue patiently waiting with our fingers crossed for that hashtag to come true. 

#Sixseasonsandamovie

The Soup airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on E! and The Comment Section, from executive producer McHale, premieres on Friday, Aug. 7 at 10:30 p.m. on E!

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