NBC re-ups "Community," "Parks," "Mercy"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC has picked up full seasons of Thursday night comedies "Community" and "Parks and Recreation," as well as its Wednesday night medical drama "Mercy."

"Community," "Parks" and "Mercy" have been modest performers, but the order for nine more episodes of each gives the trio some breathing room to potentially improve their ratings.

Absent from the network's pickup list so far is Monday night medical thriller "Trauma." NBC, the final broadcaster to order additional episodes of its new shows this fall, has a limited inventory of scripted content to fill open slots. Returning comedy-drama "Chuck" is on deck, and it has been speculated that it might replace "Trauma" should NBC pull the medical thriller.

NBC has "Parenthood" and "Day One" for midseason, but "Parenthood" has been delayed because of the illness of co-star Maura Tierney, who recently was replaced by Lauren Graham, and "Day One" has been reduced to a miniseries, at least for now. The network also is prepping midseason comedy "100 Questions."

"Mercy" has averaged 7.8 million viewers and has boosted its time period for the network by 37 percent compared with the previous season. "Community" has averaged 5.7 million. "Parks and Recreation," which debuted last season and was brought back for 13 episodes this fall, has averaged 4.8 million viewers.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

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