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Last week during the 2017 television upfronts, ABC announced that Last Man Standing had been canceled, along with Dr. Ken on the network’s Friday night schedule (while Modern Family got picked up for another two seasons). There was no reason given for the cancellation of the conservative-leaning show, which has always managed to squeak by on somewhat decent ratings — although the attention Tim Allen recently drew to himself by comparing Hollywood to living in “1930s Germany” may not have helped.
In any case, conservative fans are pissed about the demise of their favorite show, and are demanding satisfaction with a petition and threat of a boycott of ABC, should the Disney-owned network refuse to un-cancel the show as NBC recently did with its sci-fi time-travel drama Timeless.
The petition, which has accumulated nearly 100,000 signatures at the time of this writing, makes the case that Last Man Standing “appeals to a broad swath of Americans who find very few shows that extol the virtues with which they can identify.”
Last Man Standing was not just selling conservative ideals though, as some of the characters in the show are clearly of the liberal persuasion, yet the characters on the show all manage to get along and take care of one another, despite their politically opposed views. The show is about more than politics though, it is about family. In fact, politics is only a secondary part of the show, but one in which many Americans can readily identify.
Last Man Standing is one of the only shows on broadcast television, and the only sitcom, that is not constantly shoving liberal ideals down the throats of the viewers. And sadly, that is likely the real reason the show has been cancelled.
ABC will be officially releasing its 2017 fall schedule later Tuesday morning, so it still remains to be seem whether or not fan voices will be heard.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
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How were they able to change the channel from CBS?
Hey-o!
@staubachlvr
This show is too expensive to make enough of a profit. It’s cancellation is the free market at work. Conservatives have a pretty strong hard on for the free market. Until they don’t.
If you need any other simple things explained to you, just let me know,
Fans of the show have a reason to be upset. From a ratings perspective the show performed well for ABC. What most viewers don’t know is that ABC would have had to enter into a new production contract with 20th (who makes the show). In the new contract ABC would have likely been on the hook for some production costs. 20th had being paying those costs in the original contract. ABC opted to cancel it rather than incur the new costs. At least that is their official argument.
I don’t think it was cancelled due to Allen’s comments. I do however think that ABC sees the anti-conservative mood of the country created by the Trump administration and that they decided they no longer wanted to be in the Last Man Standing business. The deal with the production contracts is a convenient excuse, but it is also a norm in the industry.
Kind of a shame because the block quote is correct. The show contained political aspects and while several characters were conservative others were not. The show was more about them all getting along despite their different views.
Excellent post thank you. I don’t get the outrage. If they hated it was so “conservative” that they canceled it, why make it and run it for 6 seasons to begin with?
Would’ve been nice to get that level of analysis in the actual article…..
It was a moderate performer in the 18-49 demographic. Not bad but not good either. Hard to believe that ABC would be so aghast at a show that features a conservative white male as the lead character that they would let it run for six years and THEN cancel it due to politics.
Contract negotiations almost certainly killed it. Long-running shows always cost more as the stars want more money to sign new contracts and the production company wants more money to create new episodes.
@ak3647 it averaged over a one rating on Fridays last season. In today’s broadcast world that is a win.
As far as contract negotiations, it isn’t a BBT style show. The only one getting a big pay day is Allen and they could have easily put something for him on the back end. The show is currently in syndication on CMT, Hallmark, and ABC Family. Every additional season would have just upped the syndication value.
But that narrative wouldn’t allow aggrieved white people to feel victimized!
The free market is the solution to everything.
Until it’s not.
@Tim the fuck does that have to do with this situation?
Add to the conversation or toddle on back to the echo chamber that is late stage capitalism on reddit
@Staubachlvr I think you missed his point. He was mocking the fact that conservatives love to praise the free market until it takes away something they like. He’s agreeing with you, no need for the aggression
@staubachlvr
This show is too expensive to make enough of a profit. It’s cancellation is the free market at work. Conservatives have a pretty strong hard on for the free market. Until they don’t.
If you need any other simple things explained to you, just let me know,
I saw a couple days ago some dork on my Facebook sharing a SIGN THIS PETITION FOR LAST MAN STANDING and didn’t think anything of it. “Wow, that guy really liked Tim Allen?”. Now that I know it’s some conservative circle jerk it all makes sense. I’m sure the liberal characters who get along with Tim Allen on this show are just foils for him and his lame-ass jokes.
LOL
Wait…I thought this was a Bruce Willis movie.
If this were a TV version of The Last Boy Scout, I would be 100% in.
seconded
Is this the Tim Allen show were he built a fence so he didn’t ever have to see his neighbor? The Wilson’s of the world are trying to take our jobs!!!!
Six seasons wasn’t enough—there was more story to tell! At least two other men were still standing!
Clearly this show was going to be the next Simpsons and run for 30 years until the liberals killed it! We live in a world where Firefly got one season and this show got six, so the people upset about it can kindly go fuck themselves.
Oh good, another boycott.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Not sure how the Mouse’s House stays standing. Conservatives have boycotted Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast and now ABC. Disney is gonna go out of business soon.
I’ll do my part by continuing to pretend Agents of SHIELD doesn’t exist.
I read also that there is another, similar, petition that someone made that asks Congress to investigate ABC over this…
People want Congress to launch an investigation on an entertainment company over whether or not they cancelled a particular television show for political reasons, but don’t want an investigation into the President’s and his campaign’s ties to a foreign government to continue.
ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey says:
“A large part of these jobs are managing failure and we’ve made the tough calls and canceled shows that we’d otherwise love to stay on the air. That’s the job. I canceled Last Man Standing for the same business and scheduling reasons that I canceled Dr. Ken, The Real O’Neals, The Catch and American Crime. And Last Man Standing was a challenging one for me because it was a steady performer in the ratings, but once we made the decision not to continue with comedies on Fridays, that was where we landed.”
“She also said studio ownership, future creative direction, ratings and viewer engagement were factors she considered in making her decision.”
Sound reasoning, but I still think they made the wrong decision. Friday ratings are hard to come by and I don’t know if Once Upon a Time will garner the ratings.
What a bunch of whinging snowflake cucks.
They can all do a long line of coke that they bought from Allen and lick my motherfuckin nuts… especially if they are big titty hot girls.
Don’t buy coke from Tim Allen he is a snitch!
Hey conservatives take heart, ESPN, another Disney owned network, has apparently been losing ratings and money because they’re too liberal.
Yes that’s why. Good plan.
No way all 110K sigs are viewers. Old people rarely sign petitions.
Another hissy fit from the pussiest pussies on the pussyblock who whine and cry all the time about how America is getting “pussified.” What a bunch of little bitches. I thought they didnt give a fuck about Hollywood? Suck on a tailpipe.
Funny how any thought or feeling that isn’t conservative is liberal. In their eyes, the whole damn Bill of Rights is liberal, except that wonderful 2nd amendment.
I didn’t even know it was on. Won’t miss it.
That is the saddest headline I’ve read today.
It was a quiet news day for conservatives I guess. Nothing major going on at all.