‘Once Upon a Time’ gets the ax, and the list of canceled shows is growing

Shhhh! Don’t tell Tim Allen, but ABC has canceled “Once Upon a Time.”

The fairy-tale series will sign off in May after the current season. (It returns March 2, after the Olympics end on NBC.)

Why would Allen care? Because ABC somewhat unexpectedly axed his sitcom “Last Man Standing” back in May to make room for moving “Once Upon a Time” to Friday nights. And, not unexpectedly, “Once Upon a Time” sank in the ratings on its new night.

The cancellation of “Last Man Standing” really ticked Allen off and led to conspiracy-theory speculation that the big, bad liberals at Disney and ABC killed the show because he is a right-winger.

Like most conspiracy theories, this one didn’t hold up. ABC owns “Once Upon a Time”; Fox owns “Last Man” — ’nuff said.

It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, that a network made a decision on that basis. All the networks have done it and will continue to do so.

Well, except for Fox, which is in the process of selling its studio to Disney.

I don’t believe for a moment that the cancellation of “Last Man Standing” was politically motivated. But it seemed sort of stupid at the time, and it seems downright moronic now.

It made close to zero sense to move “Once Upon a Time” to Friday nights, particularly because the show was starting over. Six of the series’ main stars left after Season 6, and the show was essentially rebooted with a new cast and relaunched on a new night.

The only people who might be slightly surprised it didn’t work are the ABC programmers who made the decision. And, with 20-20 hindsight, it clearly was the wrong way to go.

What’s canceled? “Once Upon a Time” joins a growing list of shows that have been canceled this season — a list that includes ABC’s “The Mayor” and “Ten Days in the Valley”; CBS’ “Me, Myself & I,” “Wisdom of the Crowd” and “Zoo”; and NBC’s “The Night Shift.”

And that’s just the beginning. The list will get a lot longer.

The list of shows that we knew were ending includes ABC’s “The Middle” and “Scandal,” The CW’s “The Originals” and Fox’s “New Girl.”

Other cancellations to date include AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire,” BBC America’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” BET’s “Being Mary Jane,” Bravo’s “Odd Mom Out,” CMT’s “Nashville,” E!’s “Fashion Police,” Epix’s “Graves,” Freeform’s “The Fosters,” Showtime’s “Episodes” and “White Famous,” Spike’s “The Shannara Chronicles,” Starz’s “Survivor’s Remorse,” TNT’s “Major Crimes,” USA’s “Damnation” and WE’s “Mary, Mary.”

Streaming service cancellations include Amazon’s “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” “One Mississippi” and “Red Oaks”; Hulu’s “Chance,” “Difficult People,” “East Los High” and “The Mindy Project”; and Netflix’s “Chelsea,” “The Get Down,” “Haters Back Off,” “Lady Dynamite,” “Longmire,” “Love” and “Sense8.”