ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey defends her decision to axe the comedy as star Allen claims he's 'stunned and blindsided' by the network.
- May 17, 2017
AceShowbiz - "Last Man Standing" cancellation left fans enraged and Tim Allen "stunned." Following ABC's decision to cancel the Friday night series after six seasons, Allen took to Twitter to express his shock. "Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years. #lastmanstanding," he wrote.
Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years. #lastmanstanding
— Tim Allen (@ofctimallen) May 16, 2017
The cancellation has also sparked a boycott on ABC. Conservatives signed a petition on Change.org which claims that the cancellation on the blue-collar comedy is an attack on their conservative values. " '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," reads the petition.
The petition has gained nearly 200,000 signatures.
In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, May 16, ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey defended her decision to axe the show. Without addressing the speculation that Allen's politcs played factor in the decision, she said, "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."
She added, "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."
Allen, an outspoken Republican, previously compared being a Republican in Hollywood to 1930s Germany. "You gotta be real careful around here," he said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "You get beat up if you don't believe what everybody else believes. This is like '30s Germany."
