Last Man Standing: Canceled by ABC Causes Conservative Uproar

The Last Man Standing, an ABC comedy series starring Tim Allan was canceled by ABC Television Network. Conservative website Heat Street has accused ABC of liberal bias, for its decision to decision to cancel the Friday night comedy. According to Heat Street, “The Last Man Standing cancellation has caused dismay among fans who believe the series was canceled because of the Allens right-of-center political beliefs.” The series is about an unashamedly conservative character (Mike Baxter) played by a conservative actor (Tim Allen).

Also according to Heat Street, The Last Man Standing was ABC’s second-most-watched comedy this season, with over 6 million viewers, only behind Modern Family and Deadline Hollywood.

ABC Entertainment president Channing said the job of a programming executive was “managing failure,” but The Last Man Standing was not a failure. “It was a steady performer,” Channing admitted, adding, however, that “Once we made the decision not to continue with comedy on Friday, it was just kind of that is where we landed.”

ABC’s surviving shows with average ratings are all owned by ABC. That means there are financial reasons for The Last Man Standing to be terminated since 20th Century Fox owns it. Nonetheless, the cancellation is not going over well with fans and is definitely creating a stir in the conservative blogosphere.

At last count, a petition on change.org had garnered over 350,000 signatures to save The Last Man Standing. It is a comedy and stood out in the sea of network television sitcoms, and it appealed to a many Americans who find very few shows that admire the values with which they can relate: namely conservative values.

One critical issue for leaders to remember is that in a hyper-partisan environment almost any decision you make will be second-guessed by your audience, employees, and stakeholders.

One critical issue for leaders to remember is that in a hyper-partisan environment almost anything decision you make will be seconded guessed by your audience, employees, and stakeholders.