Tim Allen fans got an unpleasant surprise last spring when news broke that ABC had decided to cancel sitcom Last Man Standing after six seasons. The show was performing well enough in its Friday night time slot, but ABC explained that the cancellation was all about business, and the decision had been made to use Fridays for an entirely different genre. Now, another network is reportedly interested in bringing Last Man Standing back to the airwaves. Tim Allen's show may get a second chance, this time on Fox.
Conversations are apparently taking place between the network and key contributors to the show during its original run on ABC. TVLine reports that Tim Allen has already signed a deal for a potential revival to air in the 2018-2019 TV season. A seventh season in the 2018-2019 season would mean that Last Man Standing wasn't actually off the air for all that long, so fans of the series should be happy. Talks are reportedly ongoing with the original executive producers as well as the cast. All things considered, a Season 7 on Fox may not feel all that different from earlier seasons on ABC.
That said, there are no guarantees at this point, so fans shouldn't start planning their viewing parties for the fall just yet. Production company 20th Century Fox was looking to find a new home for Last Man Standing after it originally got the axe last spring, and CMT emerged as a likely candidate for a new season. Talks with CMT ultimately came to nothing, and Last Man Standing was absent from any TV lineups in the 2017-2018 TV season. It seemed that all hope was gone for a Last Man Standing Season 7.
A big question now is what motivated Fox to kick off talks to bring Tim Allen and Co. back for another season. The initial cancellation resulted in fans petitioning for a renewal, and people are still signing. The petition has, at the time of writing, accumulated more than 437,000 signatures. Fans have had a rough year since the show was cancelled AND taken off Netflix (although it's currently available on Hulu), and it's no surprise that the petition racked up as many signatures as it did.
Still, it's not all that likely that a petition was enough of a motivator for Fox to invest what must be a sizable amount of money in potentially bringing Last Man Standing back. The success of other revivals may have been a motivating factor. Will and Grace on NBC was the first smash hit sitcom revival to start breaking records in the 2017-2018 season, and Roseanne followed with broken records of its own on ABC earlier this year. Fox may have wanted to get in on the success of the sitcom revival game. Given Tim Allen's feelings about how the cancellation was handled, a switch to Fox must have been appealing.
We'll have to wait and see if Last Man Standing really does make it back to the airwaves. The odds are looking quite good at this point. You can watch all six seasons streaming on Hulu now, and you can discover your other viewing options now and in the not-too-distant future on our summer TV premiere guide.
