'Last Man Standing' Cancellation Controversy: What to Remember

'Last Man Standing' was canceled by ABC in 2017 despite large viewership and picked up by Fox the following year.

By Megan Behnke

It's been three years since Last Man Standing aired its series finale and seven years since its initial shocking cancellation. The Tim Allen-led sitcom originally aired on ABC until Season 6 before the network axed it in 2017. The following year, Fox picked up the series, where it lasted for three additional seasons. The first cancellation was a surprise since it was one of ABC's biggest shows at the time, but it came in the midst of some controversy.

In March 2017, Allen appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! where he told Kimmel that being a Republican in Hollywood today is "like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You'll get beat up if you don't believe what everybody believes." Many did not take lightly to the comparisons, including The Anne Frank Center, which called his remarks "deeply offensive" and that it "trivializes the horrors imposed on Jews in Nazi Germany," according to TheWrap.

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(Photo: FOX via Getty Images)

That May, less than two months after the Season 6 finale, ABC canceled Last Man Standing. At the time, the sitcom had an average of 8.3 million viewers with a 1.7 rating, which was pretty solid for a Friday night series. Via The Hollywood Reporter, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey shared that she canceled the sitcom "for the same business and scheduling reasons that I canceled Dr. Ken, The Real O'Neals, The Catch, and American Crime" as they had made the decision to take away comedies on Fridays.

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While she stressed that Allen's comments did not play a factor into the cancellation, noting that financials and ownership were also a big problem, it did come at quite an interesting timing. Regardless, fans ended up boycotting ABC, taking to social media in an effort to save the series. They also created a petition on Change.org that racked up close to 400,000 signatures, according to Blasting News. It may have taken some time, but by May 2018, Fox had picked up the sitcom and ran for three more seasons until its series finale in 2021.

Even though Last Man Standing's last few years were a bit rough, the show managed to continue without any problems. With Shifting Gears coming soon to ABC, hopefully, that will be a bit smoother than Tim Allen's last show on the network.

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