ABC’s The Last Man Standing has had his last stand.
The Disney-owned network has canceled the Friday comedy starring Tim Allen after six seasons.
Fridays are hard, but Last Man Standing had triumphed where all other comedies have failed. The multicamera sitcom, an ABC homecoming from Home Improvement star Allen, averaged a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49 and an even more-impressive 8.3 million viewers. (Yes, that means it skews slightly older — but an audience is an audience.) Still, Last Man Standing is getting old. And age in TV costs money.
Another year means a seventh season for the show — and that is often the magic number for renegotiations in broadcast. The fact that it successfully segued into syndication (on CMT) during the 2016-17 season is certainly another feather in its cap, but that does little for ABC. The show is produced and owned by 20th Century Fox Television, which certainly didn’t help matters given broadcast networks’ increased value on ownership.
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