Tuesday morning Tim Allen finally broke the silence over the cancellation of his popular sitcom Last Man Standing. Via a verified Twitter account, the television legend wrote, “Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years.”
As The Daily Wire reported last week, despite high ratings, the ABC television network (which is owned by the left-wing Walt Disney Company) killed the long-running sitcom, one that not only won its Friday night timeslot but had become an even bigger cash cow through the syndication of reruns. Moreover, the half-hour sitcom about a middle-America, conservative business-owner was seen as a Friday night anchor, the kind of show that attracted and kept viewers throughout the evening.
At the time, ABC claimed that the surprise cancellation was due to costs and expensive licensing arrangements with the show’s owner, 20th Century-Fox TV, including the matter of Allen’s star salary which, after six seasons, would have to be re-negotiated.
This explanation, however, made little sense.
ABC was apparently in the exact same situation with another hit sitcom, Modern Family. Nevertheless, in this particular case, ABC worked out a deal with 20th Century-Fox TV and the sitcom’s stars in order to renew the popular series for two additional seasons.
For obvious reasons, the only difference Last Man Standing fans see between the two shows is that Modern Family proudly leans to the political left and Last Man Standing has the temerity to present a conservative, Christian main character who lives in Middle America, supports Donald Trump and sometimes ridicules leftists.
Since the publication of our initial report, in the hopes of saving the show, fans have gone in two different directions. A boycott has begun, as has a petition. As of this writing, more than 200,00 have signed the Change.org petition that reads in part:
Last Man Standing stands out in the sea of network television sitcoms. It is a show that appeals to a broad swath of Americans who find very few shows that extol the virtues with which they can identify; namely conservative values.
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.
For its part, on Tuesday, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey denied politics had anything to do with the cancellation:
I canceled Last Man Standing for the same business and scheduling reasons I canceled The Real O’Neals, Dr. Ken, The Catch, American Crime. It was a challenging (call) because it was steady performer but when we made the decision not to continue with comedies on Friday that’s where it landed.
She also added that what we were originally told about the cancellation, that it was based on an expensive licensing agreement, was not the “deciding factor.”
That explanation never made sense anyway, especially with the expensive, two-season renewal of Modern Family.
ABC’s latest explanation also fails to pass the smell test. Lumping Last Man Standing in with these other shows makes absolutely no sense. The Real O’Neals, Dr. Ken, The Catch, and American Crime all garnered horrible ratings. Tim Allen’s sitcom not only enjoyed high ratings, won its timeslot, anchored the night, and printed money in syndication, but are you ready for this…?
According to Deadline, Last Man Standing is/was ABC’s second-highest rated sitcom after Modern Family.
Who in the world cancels their second-highest rated sitcom?
Well, that would be the same left-wing corporation run by Bob Iger, a die-hard Democrat fundraiser and donor, who drove $40 million into a ditch because a miniseries offended Bill Clinton.
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