SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Allen’s sitcom “Last Man Standing” will not be on the fall schedule, Deadline reports.
“Last Man Standing” will be held for later in the season, which means it’ll leave the Friday night slot when it’s normally aired.
“WWE’s Smackdown Live” will take over on Friday nights.
The Tim Allen comedy “was not assigned another slot on the Fox fall schedule, which will feature no live-acting comedies for the first time in years,” according to Deadline.
“We set some comedy goals, one of which was ramping up our animation lineup; that was our No. 1 comedy target,” Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn said during a call, according to Deadline.
“One of the other goals was to find a new companion to Last Man Standing,” which the network found in new family sitcom 'Outmatched,'” Thorn said, according to Deadline. And “lastly, it was expanding the brand with shows like ‘What Just Happened??!’”
“Last Man Standing” ranks as the second most-watched and third highest-rated scripted series this season, according to Deadline.
The move was expected after “WWE SmackDown Live” joined the network for 2019.
“Last Man Standing” joined the Fox network after it was canceled by ABC (possibly over politics, fans say) after its sixth season. It returned for its seventh season on Fox.