Ratings are not the only factor

another season of 22, or even 13, more episodes.

USA TODAY’S 15th annual Save Our Shows poll asks you to vote on which of 22 scripted sitcoms and dramas with uncertain fates deserve new seasons or a spot on the discard pile. (Reality series are excluded, as are four shows that haven’t yet premiered.)

This year’s list includes long-running series such as CSI’S Miami and New York spinoffs, only one of which is likely to survive; newcomers Alcatraz and GCB; and other low-rated cult favorites such as Fringe, Parenthood, Cougar Town and Parks and Recreation.

Community has one thing in its favor: The show has a small but vocal young fan base that tweets, chats and blogs incessantly about the Greendale junior-college clique, in outsize proportion to other TV comedies, says Trendrr, a socialmedia tracking firm. “Six seasons and a movie” is one rallying cry. But mainly they’re hoping to make it past this third season, which wraps May 24 with backto-back episodes that — in a telling change — will offer closure instead of cliffhangers.

“There seem to be a lot of people talking about our show, and then you look at the ratings and you go, ‘How can that be?’ ”

“We’re thrilled that there’s a very loyal core audience for ( Community), but that excitement online, unless it translates to viewers, isn’t really going to move the needle.”

Robert Greenblatt, NBC entertainment chairman

says series star Joel Mchale. “It’s one of the first shows that’s (more likely) seen on Hulu and itunes and Bittorrent and every other way young people consume media. We’d love for it to be event television, but that’s how it’s gone.” And that may not be enough. “We’re thrilled that there’s a very loyal core audience for this show, but that excitement online, unless it translates to viewers, isn’t really going to move the needle,” says NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who will decide its fate. “I wish it was indicative of growing numbers.”

TV’S rite of spring

Each spring, TV’S process of rebirth and renewal follows a predictable pattern. New shows are developed, and pilot episodes produced to replace inevitable casualties among fall’s new crop and a second wave of midseason replacements.

Of this season’s 37 new scripted series, at least 18 won’t return, including heavily promoted Terra Nova and Pan Am. Nine are guaranteed a second season, led by top newcomers Person of

Interest and 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, Revenge, Smash and fantasy

series Once Upon a Time and Grimm. And 10 others are on the bubble.

Often the calculus comes down to ratings: Are they stable or declining? Do they improve the time slots inherited from other shows? How do they stack up against competing shows? But increasingly, other factors come into play, such as delayed viewing on DVRS, awards and critical acclaim, and whether the network owns the show, offering potential syndication profits.

Those are balanced with scheduling needs and the availability of worthy replacements, as programmers watch and test pilots with focus groups and construct their fall schedules, to be unveiled to advertisers the week of May 14.

And low-rated shows with loyal, passionate followings can sometimes sway executives, especially when financial incentives are added that make them less costly to air. That’s what allowed NBC’S Chuck to survive for five seasons, and what might win Fox’s Fringe another round.

“That’s generally the tension in the discussion” about which shows to renew, says Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. Do you choose “something you are delivering for a fan base that loves the show,” or “something that could seed the next generation of hits?”

“We can only carry so many shows that aren’t getting to a certain threshold,” he says, “but if something is creatively vibrant and strong, it’s worth the reach. Many networks have hurt themselves trying to upgrade; you hope every new show is a savior, and very often the next one is a bigger headache than the one you replaced.”

To plead their case, producers of bubble shows often make personal pleas to their networks, pitching enticing newseason story ideas. But “I’m not really much of a politician,” Harmon says. “I’m trying to make sure (new episodes) are the best they can be, but if you have to beg for something, who wants it anyway? I’m not in the lobby of NBC with a dozen roses or going fly-fishing with anybody.”

Hard to compromise

Harmon’s fiercely independent, swing-for-the-fences streak has won Community the kind of obsessive, proselytizing fans Fox’s Arrested Development had. But like that show, it has constructed barriers to the kind of mass appeal necessary for big broadcast-network survival, layering loopy plots with obscure references and rapid-fire jokes.

Last spring featured a riff on My Dinner With Andre, a cult-fave low-budget 1981 film. This week’s episode continues an elaborate school-wide pillow vs. blanket fight in a Ken Burns-style documentary format, and the April 26 installment is a pitch-perfect parody of Law & Order involving the case of a broken biology-class yam plant.

“I don’t see the show as niche,” Mchale says. “You might not get every joke, but there will be something for you right after the one you don’t get. If we were to change the show, it would be a disservice to people who do watch.”

The same guiding principle applies to Fringe, which subverted early promises of stand-alone storytelling with increasingly convoluted plots with alternate universes, timelines and doppelgängers for each of its main characters. It’s pretty clear that no new viewers are going to come on board to join the faithful 4 million, the same-sized crowd Community attracts. Harmon is unapologetic. “You find the good in what you’ve got, and when you’ve got a low-rated show on a big network, you have the excuse creatively to make it a little more personal and a little more stylized,” he says. “The price you pay for that is you’re always on the precipice of euthanization.”