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Amidst the flurry of cancellations yesterday, one show seemingly escaped the axe, ABC‘s midseason comedy Family Tools. It was more of a stay of execution, and I’ve learned that the low-rated recent addition is now officially cancelled too, joining the other ABC series that were notified of their demise last night, How To Live With Your Parents, Body Of Proof, Red Widow, Malibu Country. There you have it.
The May sweep stepped it up a notch last night with American Idol (2.8/8), The Voice (1.6/5) and Survivor: Caramoan (2.3/7) going head-to-head-to-head. While not the first time Idol and The Voice have faced off directly (they overlapped on April 27, 2011), and the NBC show a season-so-far recap, it was their debut matchup this season. With Harry Connick Jr joining as guest mentor and a “you’re a superstar” shout-out to contestant Amber Holcomb from judge Nicki Minaj, Wednesday’s American Idol fell 13% from last week’s fast nationals and 15% from April 24’s final numbers to hit an all-time Wednesday low. Still, Idol still was the most watched show of the night with 11.08 million viewers, and Fox took Wednesday in the adults 18-49 demographic and total viewers with 11.075 watching on a night when usage slipped 4% in the demo.
In its first Wednesday broadcast of the sweep, The Voice: The Road To Live show was essentially a greatest clips of the show’s fourth season so far. A lead-in and perpetual tease to next week’s three nights of live shows, the one-hour episode was up 19% from the 1.3/4 that Dateline received in the same time slot April 24. With The Voice recap show as a lead-in, Law & Order: SVU (1.5/4) saw a drop of 21% from last week. Following at 10 PM, Chicago Fire (1.7/5) bopped up 6% from its last new show April 3. Read More »
Leah Remini has been sued today by her ex-mangers over commissions from her upcoming ABC Family Tools sitcom. The mid-season replacement doesn’t even debut until next month but in their complaint (read it here) … Read More »
ABC is overhauling its schedule for midseason with changes on four nights. New comedies Family Tools and How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life) will join the network’s Wednesday comedy block, with ABC’s Tuesday comedy block going away. New drama Red Widow will succeed 666 Park Ave on Sunday. ABC is replacing now-defunct freshman Last Resort with another male-skewing new drama in the challenging Thursday 8 PM slot, Zero Hour. And, following the end of Private Practice, the revamped Body of Proof will return to its Tuesday 10 PM slot. Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: ABC has cut the order of midseason comedy series Family Tools from 13 to 10 episodes. Sources close to the network say that the decision was made for scheduling reasons as Family Tools in slated to premiere … Read More »
Diane Haithman contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.
Last August, Leah Remini’s name was in the news as she was ousted from CBS daytime’s The Talk along with Holly
Robinson Peete. Now she’s at ABC in the new comedy Family Tools. And at today’s TCA panel on the comedy, she was 
relentlessly upbeat about the change.
“I do believe things happen for a reason, it’s a blessing”, she said. “I started at ABC in 1989 with Living Dolls. My mother said: ‘What part are you playing?’ Yeah”, she cracked. “But it is a blessing to be here, I love being back at ABC, I’d like to stay here and get comfortable”.
Remini seems determined to deflect any negatives and called her ouster from the daytime talk program “a learning experience”. After the session, she acknowledged that in hindsight “there were a lot of things I wish I didn’t say, but it’s live television”. As far as regrets go, she added: “It’s the relationships. It’s not just a job, it’s about the relationships”.
Related: Producer Claudia Lonow On ABC’s ‘How To Live With Your Parents’
But back to the show. Remini was joined on the panel by co-stars Johnny Pemberton, J.K. Simmons, Kyle Bornheimer, Edi Gathegi and Danielle Nicolet, as well as executive producer Bobby Bowman. Bowman was asked to explain the 
genesis of the show’s title and how it will differ from the British series it is based on, White Van Man.
“It’s had more than three titles,” Bowman said. He said at first they thought of maintaining the title but “van man,” which means “fix-it guy,” is not an American expression. Then they considered “jack-of-all-trades,” but eventually landed on Family Tools.
Related: ‘Malibu Country’s Kevin Abbott: In Defense Of Multi-Camera Comedy: TCA Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Comedy writer-producer Vijal Patel has signed a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios. Under the seven-figure pact, he will join ABC Studios’ new comedy series for ABC Family Tools as a co-executive producer. … Read More »
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