Though we’ve been reporting on a bunch of very exciting pick-ups over the past 24 hours (including Community and Parks and Recreation), NBC has given the axe to a few of its freshman series.  The most high profile cancellation is the Jason Isaacs-fronted drama Awake.  The show, from Lone Star creator Kyle Killen and Homeland’s Howard Gordon, got off to a great star with a stellar pilot, but quickly spiraled into boring procedural territory.  I found the premise—a man is living two realities, one in which his son survived a car crash and one in which his wife survived—to be incredibly promising, but for some reason producers decided to rely heavily on the procedural aspect of the show and inject an eyeball-rolling mythology.

Audiences weren’t buying it, and the ratings steadily declined over the ensuing weeks. Killen is undeniably talented, so hopefully he gets another shot next pilot season.  Hit the jump for news on other NBC cancellations.

NBC has released their midseason schedule, and there’ve been quite a few shakeups. The much-derided Whitney moves to Wednesdays, Up All Night will settle in as part of the Thursday night comedy line-up, and gone is the Maria Bello-starred cop drama Prime Suspect. It appears that NBC has finally given up on the drama series, which has been struggling ratings-wise for quite a while. My biggest complaint, though, is the complete absence of Community. The show, which is one of the smartest and best shows on television right now, is nowhere to be seen on the schedule. While the series hasn’t exactly been a ratings juggernaut, it’s captured the hearts of critics and fans alike as one of the most innovative (and at times rather strange) comedies to grace our TV screens. Hit the jump for much more.