Last Man Standing was a sitcom on ABC. It met with a fair amount of success from the viewers, which was why its cancellation on May 10 of 2017 came as something of a surprise for its viewership. Since that time, its star Tim Allen has been seeking to revive the series somewhere else, but so far, he has not been met with success in this regard.
Why Was Last Man Standing Cancelled?
When Last Man Standing was called, there was something of a political element to the uproar over the cancellation. For those who are unfamiliar with the incident, Tim Allen is a Republican who has at one point in time claimed that being a conservative person in Hollywood was like being in Germany during the 1930s, which was when the Nazis rose to power in said nation. This claim expressed much the same sentiment as an earlier statement from Allen claiming that he found it hypocritical of Hollywood to loathe Donald Trump for being a bully when Hollywood would “bully” people who expressed pro-Trump views, which was a remarkable glossing over of the context to say the least. Regardless, it should come as no surprise to learn that Allen’s political views extended to his character on Last Man Standing, which in turn, meant that a lot of its fans saw it in a political light when the series was cancelled, having been primed by Allen’s previous statements.
Whether this was true or not, ABC’s executives denied the allegation. Instead, they stated that it was because of their choice to no longer show comedies on Fridays, which was supported by the cancellation of a number of other series from other studios at around the same time. Furthermore, there was a financial reason as well in that ABC was not willing to shoulder the production costs for Last Man Standing, which would have been on its seventh season if it had been renewed. This is relevant because ABC’s contract with 20th Century Fox meant that ABC would have had to start shouldering those costs in the seventh season but not in the previous seasons.
Regardless, the idea that Last Man Standing was cancelled because of politics caught on with the conservative news media to some extent, which propelled a petition to revive the series to more than 400,000 signatures. However, nothing came from the uproar in the end, with the result that it lost momentum.
Could Tim Allen Succeed In Getting Last Man Standing Back Onto the Air?
Allen has been speaking out about the cancellation of Last Man Standing the entire time, but in recent times, he has started becoming more motivated once more. This seems to be because of the Roseanne revival, which is happening in spite of the fact that its star Roseanne Barr is pro-Trump as well. As a result, it is no wonder that Allen has become more motivated as well, though it remains to be seen whether anything will happen as a result of that motivation. It was confirmed back in May of 2017 that 20th Century Fox had been searching for a new home for the series without success, so it will be interesting to see whether anything has changed in the time since then.
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