Despite healthy ratings, ABC promptly cancelled Tim Allen’s popular sitcom, Last Man Standing this week. The show was a successful part of the ABC line-up for six years. While some media reports claim that ABC cancelled the show due to poor ratings, the truth is that the program was the second highest rated comedy and the third highest rated “scripted” show on the network. In fact, during the final years of the show, Last Man Standing drew an impressive average of 8.1 million viewers each week.
Allen’s real crime was not poor ratings, but having the audacity to announce he was a conservative. He understood the challenge he faced in Hollywood. In an interview with ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, Allen lamented that "You gotta be real careful around here. You get beat up if you don't believe what everybody else believes. This is like '30s Germany."
