Posted Friday, May 11, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
ABC's "Last Man Standing" starring Tim Allen was a successful sitcom for six seasons but was nixed a year ago and wasn't able to find a new home.
But after the success of "Roseanne" on ABC, rival Fox decided to give the show another shot for the 2018-19 season. Allen's character was conservative leaning and many fans of the show complained loudly after ABC cancelled the show.
It's another switcheroo for the two networks. "American Idol" aired on Fox for 15 seasons and after two years off returned this year on ABC.
" 'Last Man Standing' ended too soon and the outcry from the fans has been deafening," said Gary Newman and Dana Walden, Chairmen and CEOs, Fox Television Group, in a statement. "We've wanted to put the show back together since its final taping a year ago, and Tim never gave up hope either. Thanks to its millions of devoted viewers and the irrepressible Tim Allen, we haven't seen the last of 'Last Man Standing.' "
“Last Man Standing” averaged 8.3 million viewers in Live + 7 ratings for the 2016-2017 season on ABC.
Fox cancelled a bunch of shows including "Brooklyn Nine Nine" after five seasons, "Last Man on Earth" after four and both "The Exorcist" and "The Mick" after two. It also killed "Lucifer" after three seasons. Fox had already announced the end of "New Girl" after seven seasons.
A sampling of other shows over the years that have switched networks: "Scrubs" (NBC to ABC), "Arrested Development" (Fox to Netflix), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (the WB to UPN), "Cougar Town" (ABC to TBS), "American Dad" (Fox to TBS), "Community" (NBC to Yahoo), "Diff'rent Strokes (NBC to ABC), "Futurama" (Fox to Comedy Central), "The Game" (the CW to BET), "Get Smart" (NBC to CBS), "In the Heat of the Night" (NBC to CBS), "Medium" (NBC to CBS), "The Mindy Project" (Fox to Hulu), "Nashville" (ABC to CMT), "Project Runway" (Bravo to Lifetime), "Southland" (NBC to TNT), "Supergirl" (CBS to the CW), "Taxi" (ABC to NBC) and "Wonder Woman (ABC to CBS).
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