Broadcast Networks- Avoiding Partisanship

If you haven't heard, ABC recently cancelled the comedy "Last man standing" (LMS) despite it having a high and steady viewership. This has caused a significant backlash since LMS' main character (played by Tim Allen) is a prominent conservative and made fun of liberal positions and politicians. Conservative outcry was fierce because there aren't generally too many network shows that appeal to conservatives while ABC (and many other networks) are filled with very liberal friendly shows.

ABC should immediately reinstate LMS because it reaches a key demographic that it needs to reach and does so with over 8 million viewers. More importantly though ABC (and Disney as well) need to avoid the partisan political climate in terms of content. It is ok to have liberal shows as long as there are conservative shows, but it is not ok for corporate to espouse some values over the other and make programming decisions based on them.

ABC has responded that it was not political decisions that cancelled the show...ya right. ABC has kept terrible shows on TV if it had ratings and viewership, so when did that criteria not become the end all/be all. Since the early 2000's, ABC has gotten progressively more liberal in its content. ABC news is very liberal, the sitcoms should be free from that partisanship. ABC cannot afford to alienate half of all viewers with political value debates or picking favorites. The executives views should have no bearing on whether it is a hit show or not. ABC has consistently broached its political head on issues over the years including gay marriage, equal rights, and more. This is not the job of ABC unless they will also champion conservative positions like smaller government and entitlement reform. So,

Bring back LMS!