On the heels of the news that Fox had cancelled The Last Man on Earth as well as the much beloved Brooklyn Nine-Nine (which could live on elsewhere) and The Mick, the bloodbath continues with the cancellations of supernatural dramas Lucifer and The Exorcist. And yet, the broadcaster is reviving ABC’s cancelled drama Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen. What the hell is going on?!
In a statement released earlier today, Fox TV chairmen and CEOs Gary Newman and Dana Walden said that, “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.”
Hmm yeah, ok. Meanwhile, Lucifer co-showrunner Joe Henderson has been Tweeting his thoughts on the matter, saying “We created a season finale with a huge cliffhanger so that there was no way Fox could cancel us. Instead, we’re going to frustrate the hell out of you fans. I’m so sorry for that.” Sadly that gamble didn’t pay off, though Henderson did encourage fans to “MAKE NOISE. I have no idea if we have a shot of coming back, but I know sure as anything that everyone wants to. We have so many more stories to tell.” The now series finale will air this coming Monday.
It seems like Fox is looking to start pretty fresh with a new lineup of programming this fall, and some of that may have to do with its Disney merger. Reviving a show like Last Man Standing also feels like the network is desperately trying to draft off of the success of ABC’s Roseanne revival. We’ll continue updating you with more cancellation and renewal news as it happens, As for The Exorcist, which did suffer some very low ratings during its run, TV Line has an interview with EP Jeremy Slater about what would have happened if the series had been renewed for Season 3, saying that “Part of the story in Season 3 would be Marcus having to use his connections to this religious underworld to track down his missing partner. If he can’t necessarily trust the Church anymore, because it’s been compromised, I think it’d be fun to see Marcus having to go outside the bounds of the Church and talk to some of the people he would have met over his last 30 years of exorcising people. [Sources] who deal in conspiracy theories, religious reliquaries and things like that… Shamans and rabbis and people from different faiths who may be fighting the same evil using different terminology and different methodology.”
