Last Man Standing season 8, if renewed, will move timeslots
Related Last Man Standing video – We discuss more of the series’ future in the video at the bottom of this article! Be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube to get some other news and take a look at our playlist.
Fox confirmed this news (via TVLine) while at the TCA Winter Press Tour today, and the justification for the move is simple: The network is planning to give Fridays to WWE SmackDown broadcasts, which means that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be the only nights they have for scripted programming. We do wonder if they would ever consider shifting to three nights of primetime as a result of this rather than their typical two, but nothing has been said about that just yet.
So where would Last Man Standing move? We do think that Tuesday is the most viable option, and there is a nice full-circle feeling that could come from this given that this is where the show originally aired on ABC before spending most of its run on Fridays. Tuesdays have been a problem night for Fox for a rather long time, but if Last Man Standing ends up drawing similar ratings on that night to what it’s been getting on Fridays then it could provide a good lift for them.
Of course, such a move would come with distinct advantages and disadvantages. The benefit to the Tim Allen comedy moving is that there are typically more viewers available on Tuesdays than on Fridays, especially in the fall where viewers have other things that they can do weather-wise beyond sit inside and watch TV. We know that season 7 had some of its best ratings in the early fall, but that’s a little bit of a special occasion since it was coming on the year after being previously canceled.
However, the disadvantage to a move is simply that viewers are familiar with watching Last Man Standing at its current time and it works well there. Meanwhile, there’s also a ton of competition on Tuesdays. If the show airs at 8:00 p.m., for example, it could be forced to face off against one of TV’s most watched shows in NCIS, The Conners (which is still generating good ratings even without Roseanne Barr), and potentially The Voice if the show has a two-night format this fall. We also don’t want to downplay The Flash, either, as it is The CW’s highest-rated show. This competition makes it more or less clear why Fox has had such a hard time on Tuesdays.
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Do you think that Last Man Standing would still perform well on Fox on Tuesday or a different night of the week? Share below. (Photo: Fox.)