'Animal Practice' canceled by NBC, 'Whitney' taking its place

The 2012-13 TV season has claimed its second victim. NBC is pulling the plug on its low-rated comedy "Animal Practice."

"Animal Practice," starring Justin Kirk as an oddball veterinarian with a scene-stealing monkey sidekick, never really got off the ground in the fall. It was averaging just 4.9 million viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49; Wednesday's (Oct. 17) episode pulled in just 3.8 million people and a 1.0 18-49 rating.

Second-year comedy "Whitney" will take its place on Wednesday nights starting Nov. 14."Animal Practice" will play out the string for the next three weeks until "Whitney's" return. "Guys With Kids," which has been performing marginally better than "Animal Practice" on Wednesdays, is staying put.

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As for the other question that's probably on your mind -- What about "Community"? -- there's still no answer to that yet. NBC's initial schedule for the fall had "Whitney" and "Community" together on Friday nights. That obviously won't happen now, but NBC has yet to set a return date for "Community."

Our guess? With "Up All Night" underperforming in its second season and "30 Rock" ending early next year, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see "Community" land on Thursdays again at midseason, possibly paired with new comedy "1600 Penn."

"Animal Practice" is the second third new series of the season to be canceled, followng CBS' "Made in Jersey" and the never-aired Dane Cook show "Next Caller."