Yahoo Rescues 'Community' For Season Six. And All Was Well With The World.

Sony Pictures Television has cemented its status as the biggest champion of original programming after reaching a deal with NBC to revive cancelled cult comedy Community for season six on Yahoo. 

Dan Harmon will be back as executive producer for 'Community' season six. [Photo: Getty Images, credit: Valerie Macon]

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal came after weeks of discussions with everyone from NBC, Hulu and other suitors.  

Speaking about how the deal came about, Sony Pictures Television president of programming and production Zack Van Amburg said: "The easiest way to say it is we never give up. We try so hard and have a pretty decent record now of saving and/or rescuing some of our favorite shows, whether it's Damages or Unforgettable.

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Certainly, Community is right in there in a passion project and it's got a storied past. Dan Harmon was gone; we invited Dan back; Dan came back; [NBC Entertainment chairman] Bob [Greenblatt] picking up the show every year - it was a weird pickup we had last year, where he was sort of apologizing to himself and to the audience for picking it up again [laughs] and was bowing under social pressure to do so. 

Dan Harmon and the Community team at PaleyFest [Photo: Getty Images, credit: Valerie Macon]

"...out of the blue - and this never happens - I got the best phone call in the world from Yahoo selling us on why Yahoo would be great destination [for Community]. To be honest, we were so far down the path with Hulu that, hopefully not arrogant but [we were], maybe a little bit dismissive of their overture, which made them that much more committed to explaining to us and to Joel McHale and Dan Harmon why this was going to be a cornerstone of the new Yahoo that they're about to unveil to the world. They really want to be close to their users and viewers and wanted it to be a safe destination for creators. It was an excellent and articulate speech."

Dan Harmon will return as executive producer for 13 new episodes of Community to air on Yahoo Screen, an on demand streaming service which currently airs viral videos, events and comedy. It was launched in 2011 after a rebranding of Yahoo Video to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

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