Tennessee woman’s rant about her favorite TV show getting cancelled gets her fired

A lot of people went straight to social media last week to complain after ABC canceled Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing” comedy after six seasons.

Fans called for an ABC boycott, charging that “liberal” Hollywood killed the show because of Allen’s well-known conservative politics.

The Trump supporter’s character on the show, an executive at a Denver sporting goods chain, is an outspoken Republican as well.

Nearly 240,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to save the show.

Debbie Odom Massey, the executive director of the Madison Rivergate Chamber of Commerce, near Nashville, Tennessee, was particularly angry. She torched ABC’s decision on her personal Facebook page in a scathing post taken by many as anti-gay.

Then she was asked to resign from her job after a vote of the chamber’s board of directors, according to The Tennessean.

“I can’t believe that I am supposed to be ok with shows like (‘Grey’s Anatomy’) or ‘Nashville’ or any other show that promotes LGBT blah blah blah.., WHATEVER!” Massey wrote on Thursday, according to screen grabs posted by several media outlets.

“Cramming same sex making out into our Homes! But I can’t watch MY FAVORITE show! ‘Last Man Standing’! Talk about discrimination!!”

Allen, who also starred in ABC’s 1990s hit comedy “Home Improvement,” hadn’t said anything publicly about the cancellation until he tweeted on Tuesday.

Earlier this year in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Allen likened being a conservative in Hollywood with living in 1930s Nazi Germany.

“You’ve gotta be real careful around here,” he said. “You get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes.”

ABC officials said their decision to cancel the show had nothing to do with Allen’s support of Trump.

“A large part of these jobs are managing failure, and we have made the tough calls and canceled shows that we would otherwise love to stay on the air. That’s the job. I canceled ‘Last Man Standing’ for the same business and scheduling reasons that I canceled ‘Dr. Ken,’ ‘The Real O’Neals,’ ‘The Catch’ and ‘American Crime,’” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey told reporters on Tuesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“‘Last Man Standing’ was a challenging one for me because it was a steady performer in the ratings, but once we made the decision not to continue with comedies on Fridays, that was where we landed.”

Dungey said the show averaged 8.1 million viewers each week.

Massey was one of those fans. Last week, she posted her controversial reaction on Facebook.

“ABC needs to listen to the majority — not the 2% — Afraid of lawsuit? Maybe we should scream, riot, wine and create law suits against EVERYBODY that doesn’t make us feel good, then we can get our way!!” she wrote.

“Last Man Standing also offered the counter viewpoint ... it’s not like you didn’t hear the other side. It is obvious they wish to only present their views and only wish to INDOCTRINATE people. We live in a country of FREE speech, if we believe it we should practice it and not support those who suppress it!”

Her words brought quick consequences, particularly since she represented a group that advocates and recruits a diversity of businesses to the area.

According to local media the post disappeared from her Facebook page, which has since been set to private. She also refused to comment to the media.

The chamber’s board on Monday voted to request her resignation, and she resigned, according to the Tennessean.

The chamber posted a statement about its “change of leadership” to its website.

Board members will soon begin diversity training, the statement said. The chamber also plans to reach out to LGBT businesses in the area and will write a new policy regarding social media posts.

This story was originally published May 17, 2017 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Tennessee woman’s rant about her favorite TV show getting cancelled gets her fired."