Popular TV shows canceled for political reasons...

By Yango - May 31, 2018

...  that's what I googled as I was thinking about ABC's canceling of "Roseanne." I realize we could argue about whether reacting to an expression of racism is political, but: 1. Racism and the pressure to strictly sanction it is political, 2. "Roseanne" has been under attack all through its reboot season because Roseanne has expressed support for Trump, and 3. That's what I googled, because I wanted to know what else might belong in the same category as the canceling of "Roseanne."

I mean, you've got a very popular show. It's making money for the network. Some large segment of the American public wants to watch the show. Under the circumstances, it's a big deal to ax it. Has it even happened before.

The main thing that came up in my search was the cancelation of "Last Man Standing," one year ago. At Vox, Todd VanDerWerff wrote "5 reasons ABC might have canceled the Tim Allen comedy Last Man Standing/Only one involves Trump."

It’s not often a network cancels its second most-watched comedy in a sudden, surprising move. Usually, if a show that important to a network has to go out, it’s granted some sort of “this will be your final season” reprieve.... The cancellation has left some conservative pundits wondering if Last Man Standing was canceled because Allen himself is conservative, and his character on the series is as well....

I think there are a bunch of really good business reasons for the show to end — but I also don’t know that its increased reputation as “a sitcom for Donald Trump supporters” didn’t hurt it just a little bit...

Any time the only show of one type or another, even if it’s “the only sitcom headlined by a major Trump supporter,” leaves the air, it’s hard not to wonder.
There's also the old Bill Maher show, "Politically Incorrect":
Barbara Olson, a frequent guest, was traveling to a taping of Politically Incorrect aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks of 2001. To honor Olson, Maher left a panel chair empty for a week afterwards.

In the aftermath of the attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush said that the terrorists responsible were cowards. In a Politically Incorrect episode on September 17, 2001, Maher's guest Dinesh D'Souza disputed Bush's label, saying the terrorists were warriors. Maher agreed, and replied: "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, [it's] not cowardly."

Despite similar comments having been made in other media, advertisers withdrew their support and some ABC affiliates stopped airing the show temporarily. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer denounced Maher, warning that "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do." Maher apologized, and explained that he had been criticizing U.S. military policy, not American soldiers.

The show was canceled the following June, which Maher and many others saw as a result of the controversy, although ABC denied that the controversy was a factor and said the program was canceled due to declining ratings. Maher said that the show struggled for advertisers in its final months. There were subsequently comments in various media on the irony that a show called Politically Incorrect was canceled because its host had made a supposedly politically incorrect comment.
And, incredibly, there's "Ellen":
From 1994 to 1998, [Ellen] DeGeneres starred on her sitcom, where she played a quirky bookstore owner living in Los Angeles. Ellen was fairly popular during it first four seasons, until, in 1997, both the actress and the character came out as gay.

While the series continues to receive support from TV critics and the LGBT community, the ABC series also came under a hailstorm of fire from anti-gay organizations, prompting the network to go as far as adding a parental advisory before each episode aired — an unfathomable move today. The controversy resulted in declining rating and Ellen’s eventual cancellation....
Whoa! Do you see the common theme? I'm only noticing this after writing all that you see above. All 4 shows — "Roseanne," "Last Man Standing," "Politically Incorrect," and "Ellen" — were on ABC.

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