Angry fans of Last Man Standing may soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
After ABC canceled the Tim Allen comedy last week, studio 20th Century Fox Television is looking for a new home for the show, Variety reports. Studio presidents Jonnie Davis and Howard Kurtzman told Variety they were surprised by the network’s decision to cancel the show after six seasons.
“We really were expecting a pickup. The fact that we didn’t get a pickup was a surprise and a disappointment. I think no one was more disappointed than Tim Allen, such a huge star with such a huge following,” Kurtzman said.
The series, which stars Allen as a conservative man who did not like President Barack Obama or political correctness, delivered a strong 8 million viewers on Friday nights, according to Entertainment Weekly. So when ABC announced Last Man Standing would be among the shows it axed this spring, upset viewers believed the decision was a form of punishment for the show’s politics and its conservative star. They organized a petition pledging to boycott ABC, and Allen himself said he was “blindsided” by the cancelation.
ABC President Channing Dungey said the show’s politics were not behind its cancellation, but rather “business and scheduling reasons,” according to EW.
The other big networks may not want another multi-camera comedy with a big budget, according to Variety, but Davis and Kurtzman are hopeful their fans’ passion can help the show land at another network. “We’re starting to explore that. If it’s not going to go forward at ABC, of course Jonnie and I are hopeful that we can find another home for it,” Kurtzman told Variety.