Yesterday, in discussing ABC’s decision to release a spoiler-heavy 10-minute preview of the upcoming third season of “Cougar Town,” television critic Ryan McGee asked showrunner, Bill Lawrence, directly what the idea behind the strategy was. Here’s his response:

It’s not a “new standard” as far as clips go. We have a different burden – getting people back after nine months, convincing folks to try a show with a polarizing title. But: why not put every episode out? You’re not trying to get all those people to watch it on TV, you’re trying to get word of mouth, and buzz to spread to the 25,000 NIELSEN households (that’s it – has anyone met one?) that determine the fate of your show. That is our flawed system: 25,000 households representing entire TV viewing country. You just have to hope that if a Nielsen family watches pilot/clips early, they are still compelled to watch again because they liked it and want to keep show alive. Ruining it for the masses or encouraging them to watch on their computer doesn’t matter until the system changes.

I knew the Nielsen sample was small, but that number is striking: 25,000 households, out of approximately 115 million households in America. I’m not very good at math, but by my calculator’s calculations, that means that .0217 percentage of American households determine not only the amount a network can charge its advertisers, but what shows in effect are canceled or renewed. .0217. That’s astounding. That means that, essentially, a very popular show (say, a show like “Mike & Molly” that receives 10 million household viewers) has to only be seen by the right 2,100 households out of 115 million to be considered a successful show.

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For the woefully unfamiliar, the brilliant Bill Lawrence is the writer and exec producer behind “Scrubs,” “Cougar Town,” “Spin City,” and “Clone High,” which means that he is responsible, at least in part, for the Turk Dance, Penny Can, irrational hatred of Hugh Jackman, and Hooch (who is crazy). He’s also one of the most dicked around showrunners on network television, having had “Scrubs” bounce around ABC’s schedule for years with the perpetual threat of cancellation hanging over its head, and now having third season of “Cougar Town” being held up for seven months (it will officially debut on Valentine’s Day, after “Last Man Standing”). Basically, he is to ABC what Joss Whedon was to Fox and Dan Harmon is to NBC, a beloved showrunner with a cult-like fanbase who gets little to no respect from studio suits (or Nielsen audiences). There is a reason, after all, that “Cougar Town” and “Community” reference each other frequently: Harmon and Lawrence are mutual Twitter admirers who often sulk together.

Anyway, news is that Bill Lawrence — whose “Cougar Town” doesn’t have much hope for a fourth-season renewal — is now preparing himself to be dicked around by Fox.

Fox has ordered the Cougar Town co-creator’s semi-autobiographical single camera comedy pilot “Like Father,” sources confirm to TVLine. The project, which revolves around a father-son relationship, is inspired by Lawrence’s own relationship with his father. Lawrence penned the script and will direct the pilot.

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Great news, everybody! “Work It” has been canceled. Our long, two episode, national nightmare is over.

Late Friday, ABC sent out a scheduling release announcing that “Work It” has been pulled from the network’s lineup, effective immediately. The cross-dressing comedy will be replaced by repeats of “Last Man Standing” at 8:30 on Tuesdays for at least the next three weeks.

ABC’s release clearly states that the remaining original episodes of “Work It” are “not yet rescheduled,” which theoretically means that “Work it” could return for a summer burn-off.

In its brief run, “Work It” ran afoul of critics for its quality, of GLAAD for its depiction of the transgendered community and Puerto Rican groups for its stereotyping. Those concerns weren’t enough to keep the show off the air, but an audience of under 5 million viewers in its second airing, along with a dismal number among adults 18-49, did the trick. [HitFix]

This news prompted pretty much everyone on the Internet to say something along the lines of “OKAY BRING BACK “COUGAR TOWN” NOW THANK YOU.” ABC hasn’t made an official decision about the show yet, but in an awesome and badass move, creator Bill Lawrence recently rented out a hotel bar and threw a party with free booze for the show’s cast and a ton of reporters — at the same time ABC was holding their own publicity event nearby. This is an incredibly smart, diabolical move. It’s like they say, “The way to a television writer’s heart is through his liver.” At least that’s what I say. I guess the point I’m trying to make is this: I will write pretty much whatever you want about your show or product if you have a famous person come to my house with a pitcher of mai tais. I’m quite corrupt.

Whitney/Are You There, Chelsea (NBC) — If you care about the quick return of “Community,” you will not watch the premiere of “Are You There, Chelsea” tonight. If for some reason it’s good (it’s not), we’ll let you know. And you already know that “Whitney” is no damn good. So, avoid them. Tell all your friends to avoid them. If you know someone with a Nielsen Box who plans to watch these two shows, burn their houses down. The sooner these shows are canceled, the sooner we can watch the “Law & Order” episode of “Community.”

The Middle (ABC) — Instead of “Whitney,” give “The Middle” a shot if you haven’t already. Every other episode is pretty good; maybe you’ll catch it on a good night. What I can guarantee is that it will be better than “Whitney.” Seriously, in tonight’s episode, Whitney comes home and unexpectedly and catches Alex masturbating. No one wants to see that.

Suburgatory (ABC) — If, like me, you’re having “Cougar Town” withdrawals, Dan Byrd (who plays Travis on “CT”) shows up, and Tessa confuses him for gay when in fact he’s pulling a “21 Jumpstreet.”

Happy Endings (ABC) — What I’m saying is, watch ABC tonight. Also, Michael McKean shows up as Dave’s father, who will introduce his new girlfriend, Penny’s mother (a.ka., Megan Mulally, a.k.a., Tammy #2)

The People’s Choice Awards (CBS) — The “People’s Choice Awards” are, fittingly, on CBS, because the people love CBS. And by people, I mean your parents. At least they might get a small thrill out of the host Kaley Cuoco, who I can’t hate even though she’s on “The Big Bang Theory” (the show I care least about on television. Don’t hate it. Don’t like it. It just is).

LATE NIGHT GUESTS: Dolly Parton is on Dave, Liam Neeson is on Leno, Yvonne Strahovski is on Kimmel, Jack McBrayer is on Conan, and Rosie O’Donnell is on Fallon. Also check out primary election coverage on “The Daily Show” (with Senator Jim DeMint) and “The Colbert Report” (with George Stephanopoulos).

It was an outstanding year for television comedies, as long as you didn’t watch television’s more popular sitcoms, like “Two and a Half Men” or “Mike and Molly.” To achieve the level of success afforded the likes of the CBS comedies, the humor needs to be obvious, conservative, and typically in the area of lowest common denominator. The year’s best comedies, on the other hand, were edgy, risky, weird, manic, and often offensive, which is probably why no more than 4.5 million people saw any of the year’s ten funniest episodes (according to the sham that is the Nielsen Ratings).

I didn’t want to duplicate any TV series on the list because I wanted to provide some depth and variety, which means that the ten funniest episodes of 2011 also fairly reflect the 10 funniest shows of 2011, though perhaps not in the same order. Picking a favorite among the episodes on many of these sitcoms is something of a fool’s errand, but I think the selected episodes are at least representative of their respective shows.

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