Posted on 05/19/2017 5:10:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
n January, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey told a Television Critics Association session in Hollywood that she wanted to retool ABC programming to include more shows for Trump-voting segments of the population: men, rural America and working-class families.
"If we're talking about diversity and inclusion, I want to make sure we're inclusive of everyone," she declared. "When you think about the name, we're the American Broadcasting Company."
We've seen this movie before. The commitment to wholesome values is perhaps the emptiest statement in Hollywood.
This month, she broke that campaign promise like a politician by canceling the Tim Allen sitcom "Last Man Standing," a show appealing directly to that Trump electorate. A Change.com petition protesting the move has nearly 300,000 signatures. Allen tweeted that he was "stunned and blindsided" by the bad news.
Why was Allen fired?
The show didn't have a ratings problem -- it averaged 6.4 million viewers this season, and that should be graded upward on a curve, since the show aired on Friday and the overall Friday audience is typically smaller than other weeknights. Dungey said the job of a programming executive was "managing failure," but this wasn't a failure. "It was a steady performer," she admitted. However, she added, "Once we made the decision not to continue with comedy on Friday, it was just kind of that's where we landed."
Instead, they're moving in the drama "Once Upon a Time," which averaged 3.2 million viewers this year, or half of Allen's number. In the second hour, ABC is eventually placing its show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," which this season averaged 2.3 million viewers.
What about Saturday to Thursday? Apparently, there wasn't a slot on ABC prime time for Allen's show.
What constitutes a success at ABC? Dungey declared herself "optimistic and excited" about a third season of "Quantico," which, according to creator Joshua Safran, is opposed to "Trumpian instincts." The series just concluded with a plot that the Trump-like president wanted to merge the FBI and CIA into one giant agency and was exposed as a tool of the Russians. And the ratings? This cartoonish liberal claptrap averaged 2.7 million viewers this season, just over a third of Allen's total. It was renewed.
These surviving shows with mediocre ratings are owned by ABC. That means there are business reasons for Allen's show to be dismissed, since it's owned by 20th Century Fox. But it's the second-highest-rated ABC sitcom behind "Modern Family," which is also owned by Fox. (This season, it was ABC's third most watched scripted series behind "Modern Family" and "Grey's Anatomy.") But ABC is keeping Fox-owned "Fresh Off the Boat," which on Tuesday night drew less than 4 million viewers. Pro "diversity" ABC wasn't going to cancel an Asian-American sitcom -- one with an episode last November during which a character proclaimed, "This country was founded by illegal immigrants," meaning the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock.
ABC also claims it is renewing these less-popular shows due to "critical acclaim," and that's one way Hollywood liberals can cite liberal TV critics in defense of their decisions. Tim Allen is not a critic's darling. They dismissed this show as retreading his 1990s ABC smash "Home Improvement."
So if Tim Allen's hit show is produced by Fox, why can't Fox pick it up? Deadline reported that Fox isn't airing traditional multicamera sitcoms anymore and is leaning toward "edgy" comedies to try to attract younger viewers. Fox only had two weeknight sitcoms this season, both of which struggled: the beyond crass "The Mick" (2.9 million average viewers) and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (2.1 million average viewers). Both were renewed.
Looking at all this, you can see why Tim Allen is stunned ... and why it's easy to think that a pro-Trump TV star is suddenly out of fashion largely for reasons that have nothing to do with ratings or business.
It is being picked up by someone else. I never watch but glad to see another network taking it
And the only reason “Modern Family” has an audience is the hot woman who plays the wife of Al Bundy and his conservaitve values, trying to exist in a libtard world of homo ‘family’ who adopted a poor little girl.
The show would have more audience if it dropped the homo-promoting agenda. It’s not even that the gay characters are bad, they have funny parts- but it is so wrapped in “we’re homo’s” stuff that it’s unbearable and does nothing for the plot.
Anything But Conservative..
I like his show. Hopefully someone picks it up.
Hollywood absolutely loves the stories about the Red Scare and the house commitee on un-American activities and The Blacklist against communists.
they love that that the notion their leftists suffered. Bbut the real story is the black lists are made by the left.
remember Jaws or Apocalypse Now? well the guy who wrote all of the dialogue for those hits and bigger head was John Milius, the screenwriter whose name was once as big as Steven Spielberg or George Lucas.
he was physically huge, he loved guns and Ywas a Hollywood anomaly; he was a patriot.
after he used his own money to make Red Dawn the entire left United and destroyed his career.
he was so poor he couldn’t afford to pay the tuition for Sons Law School.
They completely destroyed him, simply for being a patriot.
Two problems. One was that abc didn’t own the show so no syndication money for them. Second it was very expensive. Quantified and once upon a time are owned by abc and make a fortune on international and American syndication. That’s the bottom line. Like everything it was about money. Sorry they are not a charity.
Allen’s show is owned by 20th Century Fox. Which is owned by 21st Century Fox. Which is owned by Fox Entertainment. Which is owned by News Corp. The same News Corp that recently got its Sky takeover approved by the EU at the same time that FNC and the Daily Mail are being done in from within.
Go figure.
Note to Tim Allen: Own and produce your own stuff. Sell it directly to viewers. You don’t want a middleman anymore.
Not a charity? I beg to differ.
My son had told me about the show several years ago and so I set my DVR to record it and watched it than several days later
That is about the stupidest comment I have ever read.
I’ve heard that Tim Allen is being punished because he said he attended Trump’s inauguration. Probably not true, but...
The entire media complex has been taken over by the left. They are in business TO promote a leftist agenda, not to make money.
Read Primetime Propaganda, by Ben Shapiro! At Amazon.
DVRs viewings raise hob with ratings. Especially if viewers blow through the commercials. If ABC needed a hook to hang its hat on, they may have used DVR ratings to justify this decision. Glad I’m not a shareholder.
Why is that, K?
Who is picking it up?
Netflix will consider it...
They realized that the success of the show undermines their larger goals. It was growing in success, which they didn’t anticipate - it couldn’t be allowed to continue. If it had just been a “mild success” it’d probably still be on.
Content is king. Not networks, not providers.
Who’s picking it up?
Here’s a thought: Shows as start ups. Air a sample episode or two for free on youtube, elsewhere on line. Figure out production costs and how many buyers/subscribers you need at what price per season. If you get enough subscribers, produce until your subscribers fall off. Throw in a free DVD of the season. I can think of a few shows I’d be happy to do this for.
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