Friday, May 11, 2018

FOX Officially Revives 'Last Man Standing' for Season 7

A day after the network cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Last Man on Earth and The Mick as well as picked up two new multi-camera comedies, FOX has officially revived the comedy Last Man Standing for a seventh season after it was cancelled by ABC exactly a year ago.





Stars Tim Allen, Nancy Travis, Jonathan Adams, Amanda Fuller, Christoph Sanders and Jordan Masterson have signed on to return.

"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. "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."

The news that FOX would potentially revive the sitcom first surfaced a few weeks ago. 20th Century Fox Television attempted to find a new home for the comedy since it was first cancelled in May 2017. At one point, CMT was in negotiations to order a new season but ultimately passed even though it airs reruns in syndication.

ABC has always justified that they were right to cancel Last Man Standing when they did. Allen has been a very outspoken critic of the decision, saying that it was because of his conservative politics that led to the show's cancellation. However, the larger factors were the sitcom coming from an outside studio and rising production costs as the show aged. Every year ABC had to take on more of the financial burden without seeing as much rewards from the international sales and syndication. Moreover, the cast would have had to renegotiate their contracts ahead of the seventh season - with many of them (especially Allen) looking to get pay raises. Of course, FOX reviving the comedy also comes as 20th Century Fox Television is being sold to Disney - meaning that a year from now the network would be airing a comedy from an outside studio. Plus, there's no guarantee that the revival will be heavily embraced by fans. Allen has noted the passion of fans in saying that the show should return. But on ABC, the comedy always did significant better in total viewers than it did in the ad demographics.