SITCOM WRITES PANDEMIC INTO NEXT SEASON

Few shows are better equipped to reflect the current pandemic than one about essential workers in a big box store.

So those behind “Superstore” felt compelled to rework Season 6 of the sitcom, whichwas to premiere Thursday on NBC.

“We all decided that it would be crazy irresponsible of us, a showthat is tackling hot- button topics and the public and political and zeitgeist- y interest, ifwe just pretended that this massive, global, life- definingpandemic didn’t exist,” said Ben Feldman, who plays sales associate Jonah.

Star America Ferrera was supposed to leave the show at the end of Season 5, but then coronavirus swept thenation and globe, and that finale never happened as planned. Now, Ferrera’s departure will come in the second episode of this season.

Her character Amy Sosa — Jonah’s girlfriend, and manager of the fictional St. Louis store, Cloud 9— had scored a sweet promotion to an executive gig with the store’s parent company, Zephra. The show will still wrap up that storyline, Feldman promises, but first, it has to catch up to reality.

Feldman, knownfor roles in shows such as “MadMen” and " A to Z," wouldn’t give much away about Season 6, but he called it a “complete change in energy ... we needed to start anew after America left.”

“There’s obviously a giant elephant that can’t just sit there quietly in the room,” Feldman, 40, said. “But the Jonah andA my storyline can sit out for a bit while we catch everyone up to what happened in our virus world.