Fri-Yay: Sitcoms That Are Leaving Netflix; Superstore to End After This Season, Its 6th

Friday, December 04, 2020

Fri-Yay: Sitcoms That Are Leaving Netflix; Superstore to End After This Season, Its 6th

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Next month, The Office, long the most streamed series on Netflix, will be exiting the streaming service and moving exclusively to its new home on Peacock. It's been a move known for nearly two years now, but it's getting closer and closer and now feels all the more real. The same recently happened to its sister series Parks and Recreation, which left Netflix as well as Hulu and is now available only on Peacock. It's the latest, and maybe the biggest move, in the ever changing streaming wars. At one time, nearly everything was centrally located on one of the original big 3 streaming platforms: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. But now with more streaming services popping up, it has become increasingly splintered.

The question is, who will be hurt more? Netflix has lost two of its biggest streamers. At the same time, it has gained shows, too - Seinfeld will move to Netflix in 2021, and it has also picked up shows like Community and Sister, Sister this year, which have drawn buzz to the platform, along with their continued production of originals like Cobra Kai (swooped up from YouTube Red, of course) and Never Have I Ever that drew attention and acclaim. People are used to and comfortable with Netflix's interface, and are willing to find new shows to replace ones they've streamed many times before. On the other hand, it's possible people who love watching The Office will check out Peacock and ultimately prefer their selection (which includes most recent NBC comedies), or will simply just buy box sets of the show and stop participating in the streaming warms. Time will certainly tell on what comes of these "streaming wars" in the long run.

Superstore

After 113 episodes, NBC's critically acclaimed comedy Superstore will be concluding at the end of its current sixth season. Through its own comedic lens, the series has consistently examined many of the country's most topical issues, including health care, immigration, unionization, the plight of the retail worker and many more. Superstore, which reached more than 37 million viewers last season, has consistently been one of NBC's strongest comedies. Following the winter hiatus, Superstore returns to the NBC lineup on Thursday, Jan. 14 at 8:30 p.m. There are currently 11 more episodes to air this season, which will end in the spring.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Wednesday, August 17

Abbott Elementary - "Pilot" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
In this workplace comedy, a group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — are brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible educators may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do — even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.

Abbott Elementary - "Work Family" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
After Jacob reveals a detail about his personal life, Janine realizes she doesn’t know the other teachers as well as she thought. Meanwhile, as Gregory’s stern teaching approach is causing his whole class to underperform, Barbara and Melissa teach him how to relax and make his lessons more fun.

Abbott Elementary - "Step Class" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Janine is thrilled when Ava asks to help her teach the after-school step class, but the two don’t see eye to eye on how to run the program. Later, when Barbara, Melissa and Jacob plan an “eat-off” to decide who makes the best pizza in Philadelphia, Gregory is forced to reveal a secret.

Abbott Elementary - "Desking" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When the students start participating in a new online trend that causes disruption to the school, the teachers band together to put an end to it. Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson provides comforting life advice to Gregory; and later, the teachers finally meet Jacob’s boyfriend, Zach, who joins in to help stop the students “desking”.

Wellington Paranormal - "Mobots" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Officer Minogue meets Officer O'Leary's mom when they use her house for a stakeout to investigate why a mass quantity of obsolete electronics goes missing.

Wellington Paranormal - "The Invisible Fiend" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Minogue and O'Leary investigate a mysterious home invasion with no visible signs of entry, managing to arrest an invisible creature and bring it back to the station for questioning.

grown-ish - "You Don't Know Me" (Freeform, 10:00PM ET/PT)
The girls enlist Junior's help to find their shady roommate, Lauryn, who has a habit of mysteriously disappearing; Junior wonders if Annika is starting to catch feelings for him; Aaron suspects that Doug isn't being honest with him.

Everything's Trash - "Rom-Coms Are Mostly Trash" (Freeform, 10:30PM ET/PT)
After Phoebe suddenly sees Michael in a new light, she attempts to set him up with Malika, who already has her eye on an old flame; Jayden worries that he and Jessie have lost their spark, so they decide to spice things up.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of August 15)

Wednesday, August 17

Alison Brie (GLOW/Community) - Watch Alison Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke) - Sasheer appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Nicole Byer (Grand Crew/Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole guest hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Demi Lovato (Sonny with a Chance) - Demi co-hosts The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan will be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Zazie Beetz (Atlanta) - Zazie appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) - Simu chats with the ladies of The View on a repeat on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Susan Walters (Dear John/The War Next Door) - Susan is a guest on a repeat of The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Blair Underwood (The New Adventures of Old Christine) - Blair will be on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
Kel Mitchell (Game Shakers/Kenan & Kel) - Kel appears on a repeat of The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Sherri Shepherd (Mr. Iglesias/Trial & Error/Sherri/Less Than Perfect/Suddenly Susan) - Sherri guest hosts a repeat of The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Josh Peck (Grandfathered/Drake & Josh) and Rhea Perlman (Cheers/Pearl/Kirstie) - Josh and Rhea talk about Netflix's 13: The Musical on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Murray Bartlett (Physical/Looking) - Murry talks about White Lotus on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.